Staff Directory
- Title:
- Director of Academic Services/Head Football Academic Coordinator
- Email:
- Phone:
- 432-2943
Associate Director Mandy Chandler enters her 28th overall year as a member of the Student-Athlete Support Services staff at Michigan State. Chandler currently serves as the Director of Academic Services and as the head academic coordinator for football. Under her supervision, the program has experienced record-setting success.
Michigan State has had 175 Academic All-Big Ten selections since 2020, including a school record back-to-back years (33 in 2020 and 45 in 2021). In addition, the program set records for highest cumulative GPA and best semester GPA for the second year in a row in the 2025 spring semester.Â
Individually, 32 Spartans were named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team, eight earned Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors, and a school-record seven garnered Academic All-District accolades in 2024-25. MSU also tied a program record with six Spartans named to the Hampshire Honor Society by the National Football Foundation (graduating senior starters/major contributors with at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA). A total of 44 Spartans on the football team were recognized at the annual Spartan Academic Excellence Gala; to qualify for the annual SASS event, student-athletes must be in at least their third semester at MSU and have obtained a minimum 3.00 cumulative grade point average (GPA) or have earned a 3.00 or higher GPA during the 2024 calendar year.Â
Facing extremely challenging circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, the football team still set program records in several categories, including then-school records for the highest cumulative grade-point average and highest spring semester GPA in program history. In addition, the Spartans set team records for the most Academic All-Big Ten selections (33) and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar (12) honorees. MSU followed that effort with a school-record 45 Academic All-Big Ten members in 2021.
The football team set previous back-to-back program records in 2017-18 for the most Academic All-Big Ten selections, with 27 in 2017 and 31 in 2018, and followed up with another 26 honorees in 2019. In addition, a school-record six Spartans were named to the Hampshire Honor Society in 2019 by the National Football Foundation (graduating senior starters/major contributors with at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA). The football program also posted its all-time high GSR (Graduation Success Rate) of 90 percent in October 2019 and followed that up with a GSR of over 85 percent in November 2020. Chandler mentored more than 240 graduates under former head coach Mark Dantonio, who retired after 13 seasons in 2020 as the winningest coach in program history and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024.
Chandler has also worked with multiple Academic All-Americans and National Football Foundation Scholar-Athletes, most recently two-time Academic All-American Cole Chewins (2017-18). Kirk Cousins was a NFF Scholar-Athlete and William V. Campbell Trophy finalist in 2011, along with Max Bullough in 2013 and the late Mike Sadler in 2014. Sadler was also the only four-time Academic All-American in Michigan State history and is a member of the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame. In addition, seven Spartans (Drew Stanton, Blair White, Cousins, Sadler, Jack Allen, Josiah Price and Khari Willis) have earned the Big Ten’s highest award, the Conference Medal of Honor, for outstanding athletic and academic achievement.
Chandler also served as the head volleyball academic coordinator for more than 15 years. The volleyball team not only made a run to the Elite Eight in 2017, but also achieved the highest team GPA in program history. In 2018, the program earned an NCAA APR Public Recognition Award. Additionally, in the NCAA figures released in October 2019, volleyball was one of seven sports at MSU recognized with a perfect 100 percent GSR (Graduation Success Rate).Â
The team was recognized by the American Volleyball Coaches Association with the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2019-2020 season after maintaining a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average. The Spartans owned a 3.47 grade-point average in the 2019-20 academic year, with two athletes (Samantha McLean and Lauren Swartz) owning perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Five Spartans – McLean, Swartz, Maggie Midgette, Meredith Norris and Elena Shklyar – all earned Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors by each posting a 3.7 combined GPA over those two semesters. Two Spartans also earned Academic All-America honors (Rachel Minarick in 2017, McLean in 2018-19). McLean received the President’s Award in 2020 for having the highest cumulative GPA in the athletic department and was just the second two-time Academic All-America pick in program history.
Chandler began her Michigan State tenure as an intern at SASS in community outreach, then worked as an academic coordinator in several sports, including men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, softball and women’s basketball.
Prior to coming to Michigan State, Chandler served as the Administrative Assistant for Event Management/Student Services at the University of Missouri. She is a graduate of Purdue University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in management and her master’s degree in education with an emphasis in higher education. While attending graduate school, Chandler served as a graduate assistant in Purdue’s Academic Support Services.
Mandy is married to MSU head wrestling coach Roger Chandler, and they have two daughters. She is the daughter of George Smith, who is Athletic Director and retired head football coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Smith’s Raiders won 361 games, six Florida State Championships and two national championships during his tenure. In 2008, Smith won the Power of Influence Award, which is given by the American Coaches Association and the American Football Coaches Foundation to honor a high school football coach for their effect on players, school and community.
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