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Athletic director Warde Manuel spent last week telling anyone who asked that he was staying. On Monday morning, Michigan announced he is stepping down.
The announcement came as Michigan released the findings of a $12 million independent investigation into the culture of the athletic department conducted by the Chicago law firm Jenner and Block.
The investigation found that Michigan’s department had “failures to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing by Athletic Department employees,” per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
That report, as published by Clutchpoints, did not leave Manuel anywhere to stand. He ran that department. When leadership failure gets documented at the top level, the person at the top pays the price.
Six days before he was out, Manuel was on WTKA with host Sam Webb. He gave as honest an answer as anyone can when they know everything around them is changing.
“I don’t know what the future is going to be and how long I’ll be in this position,” Manuel said on The Big 1050 WTKA interview. “I do know that I’m here today and I do know that I’m going to be here tomorrow. And I do feel confident in the things I have done here at Michigan.”
That turnaround says everything. He was not exaggerating last week. Things moved that fast.
It all started in December 2025. Manuel fired football coach Sherrone Moore after an investigation found Moore had an inappropriate relationship with staffer Paige Shiver. Moore was arrested the same night he was fired.
The Jenner and Block investigation did not stop there. It grew into a full review of the entire athletic department’s culture.
New details that emerged suggested Michigan officials, including Manuel, had been warned about Moore’s relationship with Shiver before it became public. That detail made Manuel’s position untenable.
Manuel took over as Michigan’s AD in January 2016 after previous stops at Buffalo and UConn. Under his watch, Michigan won a football national championship in 2023 and a basketball national championship in 2026.
He signed a five-year extension in December 2024 through 2030 at over $2 million annually.
That extension is now expensive. Michigan owes Manuel severance equal to the shorter of his remaining term or 36 months.
Michigan’s interim president said leadership failed at the highest level
The investigation’s findings did not only focus on Manuel. Interim university president Domenico Grasso addressed what they found in a public statement.
“The review also identified interference, poor oversight, and failures of accountability by the highest levels of university leadership,” Grasso said in an official video message on The University of Michigan YouTube channel. “This must change.”
After the Board of Regents meeting, something subtle shifted. Grasso had previously called Manuel “the best AD in the country.” He quietly changed that to “one of the best ADs in the country.” A week later, Manuel is stepping down.
Michigan will now run a full AD search while Manuel finishes out the calendar year. Whoever takes over walks into a program with the task of rebuilding trust across an athletic department that has spent months in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
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