What is going on at Michigan — and could athletic director Warde Manuel be the next major figure to leave Ann Arbor?
To understand the controversy surrounding Manuel, you have to look at the incredible and chaotic run Michigan athletics has experienced under his leadership.
It starts with Jim Harbaugh.
After several disappointing seasons and a disastrous 2020 campaign, Michigan restructured Harbaugh’s contract and reduced his guaranteed compensation. His future appeared uncertain.
Then everything changed.
Michigan began beating Ohio State, winning Big Ten championships and ultimately captured the 2023 national championship.
But that run came with enormous controversy.
The Connor Stalions scandal erupted amid allegations that Michigan operated an impermissible advance-scouting operation to help decipher opponents’ signals. The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season, but Michigan kept winning and captured the national title.
Harbaugh then left for the NFL and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Warde Manuel promoted Sherrone Moore as his replacement. Moore represented continuity after serving as acting head coach during Harbaugh’s suspensions.
But the Moore era ended in another scandal.
Michigan fired Moore following revelations surrounding an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Now, the controversy has expanded beyond Moore himself.
The biggest questions have become:
What did Michigan leadership know? When did they know it? And how did they handle it?
Questions are now being raised about whether Michigan officials, potentially including Warde Manuel, knew more about the situation than was initially understood publicly.
That has put Manuel under increasing scrutiny and fueled speculation that his tenure could be nearing its end.
Manuel has pushed back strongly. He says he has no plans to leave Michigan and has been given no indication that the university plans to move on from him.
But the questions aren’t going away.
Manuel has overseen one of the most successful periods in Michigan athletics history — and one of its most controversial.
Michigan nearly moved on from Harbaugh before he won a national championship. That championship came amid the Connor Stalions scandal and NCAA scrutiny.
Harbaugh left for the NFL.
Manuel promoted Moore.
Moore was fired amid scandal.
Now Michigan leadership is facing questions about what it knew and when.
And the turnover hasn’t been limited to football.
Dusty May led Michigan basketball to the 2025 national championship before leaving for the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks.
Think about that sequence.
Michigan wins a football national championship. Harbaugh leaves. His replacement is fired amid scandal. Michigan wins a basketball national championship. May leaves for the NBA. Now the athletic director who presided over all of it is facing questions about his own future.
That’s what makes evaluating Warde Manuel so complicated.
If an athletic director is judged by championships, Michigan has experienced extraordinary success.
But if an athletic director is also judged by institutional oversight, accountability and stability, there are serious questions to answer.
Manuel says he isn’t going anywhere.
But the central issue is no longer simply what Sherrone Moore did.
It’s what Michigan knew, when Michigan knew it and whether the university responded appropriately.
Michigan has spent the last several years living at the intersection of incredible success and incredible controversy.
Now the question is whether Warde Manuel will continue leading the Wolverines — or become the next major departure in one of the wildest stretches any college athletic department has experienced.
Should Warde Manuel remain Michigan’s athletic director?
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