U-M President reveals why Warde Manuel will be AD until the end of 2026

University of Michigan President Domenico Grasso announced on Monday morning in a YouTube video that Warde Manuel will be stepping down as athletics director at the end of the calendar year.

It’s a bit odd for a president to announce that an AD requested to step down, but that he will actually stick around until the end of the calendar year. One would assume it’s due to the university wanting a smooth transition from Manuel to the next AD, but it’s actually much deeper than that.

Here is Grasso’s full statement regarding this, specifically:

“Additionally, today I am announcing that Warde Manuel has told me he would like to step down. I have the deepest respect for Warde and his countless contributions to Michigan, and have asked him to stay on until the end of the calendar year. I have asked him, along with one of my trusted vice presidents, to serve as a special advisor to the president and help implement these reforms. And I will be launching a national search for our next athletic director.”

Grasso personally asked Manuel to stay in his role until the end of the year to help implement policies and reforms that are needed at the university, per the Jenner & Block investigation into the culture of Michigan’s athletic department. The investigation, which was partially published by the university on Monday, “identified interference, poor oversight and failures of accountability by the highest levels of university leadership.”

“This must change,” Grasso said.

However, it also found that Manuel “demonstrated important leadership strengths, particularly his commitment to student-athletes,” but also “identified failures to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing by Athletic Department employees,” per the university.

It appears that Grasso intends on having that happen before his time as interim president is up, and part of his plan has to do with Manuel working with university leadership to implement those changes.

But as eloquently pointed out by John U. Bacon on social media, none of this really makes any sense.

If what the university reported on Monday morning is true, why would the other leaders at the university still want him out? Grasso has referred to Manuel as one of the best ADs in the country, after all. And why would Manuel want to leave in the first place? Especially considering he stated numerous times just last week that he had no intentions of leaving.

There’s also a section of the website that was released by the university that answered, “Did the investigation or culture review find that misconduct was widespread throughout Michigan Athletics?”

Their answer: “No. Neither the investigation nor the culture review found that misconduct was widespread throughout the department. The culture review found that 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.”

It seems silly to let Manuel stick around and implement policy changes that were (obviously) badly needed when he was hired in the first place, especially since they admitted “neither the investigation nor the culture review found that misconduct was widespread throughout the department.”

Essentially, Manuel is being kicked out, but he has to help clean up his mess first before he is gone.

Why not let Manuel leave now, name an interim AD for the next several months, and then hire a new AD after the Board of Regents election at the end of the year?

These questions will likely never be answered, but one thing is clear as day — the university, from top to bottom, needs real leadership. One can hope the university will have better leadership in place sooner rather than later.