SerpApi.Org
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel is stepping down at the end of the year.
The University of Michigan on Monday announced Manuel’s departure, accompanied by a video from university president Domenico Grasso who said he asked Manuel to remain through the end of the year, and outlined the findings of the independent athletics reviews conducted by the law firm Jenner & Block that was initiated last December to investigate the circumstances regarding fired head coach Sherrone Moore. Moore was fired Dec. 10, 2025, for having an affair with his executive assistant. Michigan on Monday outlined what actions the university will take in response.
Manuel did not return a request by The Detroit News for comment on Monday, but he did issue a statement.
"I am very proud of all the successes and accomplishments of our athletic department over the past 11 years," Manuel said in the statement. "We have tremendous coaches and professionals who support our outstanding student athletes every day. I am happy President Grasso asked me to stay on to work with him to implement the recommendations for continuous improvement. I promise everyone I will have more to say about my decision at the appropriate time. Forever, Go Blue."
Grasso, in a video released on Monday to the university community, said a search for a new athletic director will be conducted, but the university also is searching for a new president, which means that individual presumably would make the hire.
The Jenner & Block investigation found “weaknesses” in accountability, organizational structure, oversight, and reporting created conditions in which misconduct was not always addressed consistently, promptly, or in accordance with university expectations, the findings posted on the university’s website said. Regarding Manuel, the investigation found he demonstrated important leadership strengths, particularly his commitment to student-athletes; however, the report identified failures to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing by Athletic Department employees.
The Detroit News filed an open-records request with the university for a copy of the supportive details and findings and all related written communications, which Michigan denied, citing attorney-client privilege.
Manuel told Grasso he wanted to step down at the end of the year, which Grasso allowed, Grasso said in the video. Manuel would serve as a “special advisor to the president” to help implement the reforms the investigation recommended.
“I have the deepest respect for Warde and his countless contributions to Michigan,” Grasso said in the video message.
This comes less than two years after Manuel, 58, signed a five-year contract extension that was to take him through June 30, 2030. The average annual compensation was nearly $2.4 million, including a $1.9 million base salary and deferred compensation. The expectation is that Manuel has negotiated a buyout with the university. According to his contract, if he voluntarily terminates his employment before July 1, 2028, he would have to pay "liquidated damages equal to two times his current salary."
"Warde Manuel leaving is bittersweet," said Regent Paul Brown, a Democrat who is running for a second term on the board. "When it comes to performance on the field and performance in the classroom, he’s as good as an AD as we’ve ever had. However, there were lapses in judgment that were unacceptable. ..."
“There are pros and cons to Manuel staying on for the next few months,” Brown added. “… I have a lot of confidence that he wouldn’t let something like Sherrone Moore happen again; I think he’ll be extra vigilant."
Manuel, a former Michigan football player who holds three degrees from the university, was hired as athletic director in 2016, taking over from interim athletic director Jim Hackett, who hired Jim Harbaugh as head football coach and negotiated the university's Nike deal.
There have been national championships in football, men’s basketball and in men’s and women’s gymnastics under Manuel’s watch, but he has faced criticism for not retaining Harbaugh after Michigan won the 2023 football national championship, and, more recently, not keeping Dusty May at Michigan after the Wolverines won the basketball national championship in April.
It has been tumultuous in Michigan athletics the last several years. The athletic department most recently has been subjected to two NCAA investigations into the football program that have yielded a number of coaching show-cause orders — Harbaugh, now coaching in the NFL, was effectively banned from being a college head coach, since he would not be able to return to the game until 2038 — in-season coaching suspensions, seven total years of probation and millions of dollars in fines.
By the end of last year, however, following the conclusion of the football regular season, Moore was fired Dec. 10 after his affair with his executive assistant, Paige Shiver, became public. Moore, not long after his firing, went to Shiver's apartment and was later arrested and faced a felony charge stemming from the encounter. In March, Moore agreed to plead no contest to lesser charges, and a month later, a Washtenaw County judge sentenced him to 18 months probation.
“I felt betrayed,” Manuel told The Detroit News during an interview in April when asked his reaction to what transpired with Moore. “It’s the best word that I can use. I felt hurt for all the staff and the student-athletes and the university, because it's something that I had talked about as it related to the expectations of our employees in athletics and for the university.”
The university hired private law firm Jenner & Block late last year and has spent nearly $12 million investigating the Moore situation and the athletic department. In May, Michigan also hired the Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP firm, to represent Michigan, as it anticipated litigation from Shiver.
Moore had been Michigan’s offensive coordinator and in 2023, he filled in four times as game-day head coach while Harbaugh was suspended. He was hired as head coach in January 2024 after Harbaugh left following nine seasons at Michigan for the Los Angeles Chargers.
During the 2023 national championship season, the NCAA opened an investigation into an illegal scouting scheme orchestrated by staffer Connor Stalions. Ultimately, Harbaugh was given a 10-year show-cause order, and Moore was suspended two games during the 2025 season and was to sit the first game of this season. Michigan also was fined $30 million and given four years of probation.
This followed an NCAA investigation into illegal recruiting that started in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harbaugh served a school-imposed three-game suspension at the start of the 2023 season, and the program was placed on three years' probation.
These have been the most recent scandals in the athletic department, all involving the football program. In a lengthy interview with The News in April, Manuel addressed a number of the problems.
“We've had our issues, and we deal with them, and we try to improve every time,” Manuel told The News in April. “Those who want to see everything with me as a negative, they'll point to every negative aspect of it and use language that's extremely negative. Look, as a leader, I know you're going to take the brunt of the responsibility, and I'm fine with that. That's the role of any leader. But those who know me well know the effort and the things that I've put in place and what I've tried to build and work to do, and the results of that speak for themselves.”
Following the 2022 season, Matt Weiss, a co-offensive coordinator with Sherrone Moore on Harbaugh’s staff, was fired after it was alleged he hacked into the personal accounts of thousands of college athletes and stole intimate photographs and videos from 2015-23. Weiss faces 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on each computer charge and two years on each identity theft charge.
In May 2023, Glenn "Shemy" Schembechler, the son of legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, resigned from a recruiting job with the Wolverines a few days after he announced his hiring after a number of racist posts on his then-Twitter account came to light.
Former basketball coach Juwan Howard, hired by Manuel, confronted University of Wisconsin basketball coach Greg Gard in the handshake line after a game in February 2022. The discussion became heated, and Howard struck a Wisconsin assistant coach in the face. Howard was suspended the final five games of the regular season by the Big Ten and fined $40,000. Michigan did not levy any additional punishment. He was fired in March 2024.
Manuel also failed to take action against former hockey coach Mel Pearson after an outside firm’s report found a number of examples of misconduct by the head coach and a culture issue in the hockey program. Three months after he received the 70-page report by WilmerHale, a Washington D.C.-based law firm, Manuel fired Pearson in August 2022.
The Dr. Robert Anderson sexual abuse scandal surfaced at Michigan early in Manuel’s tenure as athletic director. In 2018, a former athlete sent a letter to Manuel detailing decades-old abuse. Manuel forwarded the letter to the university’s lawyers and not to Title IX investigators and the Office of Institutional Equity. WilmerHale also handled this investigation, and a $490 million settlement with victims was reached in 2022.
@chengelis
Staff Writer Sarah Atwood contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel stepping down at end of year
