{"id":5863,"date":"2026-07-21T09:49:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/21\/warde-manuel-to-step-down-as-michigan-athletic-director\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T09:49:07","slug":"warde-manuel-to-step-down-as-michigan-athletic-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/21\/warde-manuel-to-step-down-as-michigan-athletic-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Warde Manuel to step down as Michigan athletic director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">University of Michigan president Domenico Grasso <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2ZJiDuPuDmw&amp;feature=youtu.be\">announced<\/a> Monday morning that Warde Manuel will step down from his role as athletic director at the end of the 2026 calendar year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cToday, I am announcing that Warde Manuel has told me that he would like to step down,\u201d Grasso said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The impending change in leadership coincides with the University\u2019s release summarizing the Jenner &amp; Block investigation that began in Dec 2025 following the firing of former football coach Sherrone Moore. In a statement released by the <a href=\"https:\/\/publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu\/key-issues\/michigan-athletics-investigation\/\">Office of Public Affairs<\/a>, the University wrote it had found faults with the department\u2019s internal management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe culture review found that Warde Manuel demonstrated important leadership strengths, particularly his commitment to student-athletes,\u201d the statement read. \u201cAt the same time, it identified failures to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing by Athletic Department employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Manuel\u2019s future was called into question last week by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RossDellenger\/status\/2076411910489006542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2076411910489006542%7Ctwgr%5E0b0439d4713b3b0f7a3596e163a35b02ece0c110%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.maizenbrew.com%2Fmichigan-athletic-department%2F118290%2Fmichigan-wolverines-warde-manuel-investigation-job-status-athletic-department\">reports<\/a> of his potential dismissal at last Thursday\u2019s Board of Regents meeting. However, the regents did not discuss the athletic department during the proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the meeting, Grasso <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/ann-arbor\/2026\/07\/warde-manuel-still-one-of-best-ads-university-of-michigan-president-says-amid-scandals.html\">affirmed<\/a> that Manuel is \u201cone of the best athletic directors in the country.\u201d Previously, Manuel had publicly expressed his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/warde-manuels-future-unknown-investigation-results-expected-this-week\/\">wish<\/a> to remain with the University athletic department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/administration\/manuel-serve-michigans-next-athletic-director-source-confirms\/\">Hired<\/a> as athletic director in Jan 2016 after serving in the same position at Connecticut for four years, Manuel experienced both success and controversy in his 11 years at the helm of Michigan Athletics. The Wolverines won four national championships under his tenure, including in April when the Michigan men\u2019s basketball team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/michigan-wins-national-championship-69-63-knocks-off-connecticut\/\">defeated<\/a> the Huskies for its second-ever NCAA title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The University athletic department faced numerous scandals under Manuel\u2019s leadership. He came under fire in 2022 for retaining former hockey coach Mel Pearson for several months after an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/ice-hockey\/michigan-fires-mel-pearson\/\">investigation<\/a> revealed Pearson\u2019s pattern of misconduct within the program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Oct 2023, the Michigan football team underwent an investigation by the NCAA for sign-stealing allegations in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-staffer-connor-stalions-suspended-with-pay-amid-scouting-probe\/\">connection<\/a> with former assistant Connor Stallions. The NCAA accepted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/reports-michigan-levying-three-game-suspension-for-jim-harbaugh-to-open-2023-season\/\">self-imposed<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/report-michigan-expected-to-self-impose-2-game-suspension-on-sherrone-moore\/\">sanctions<\/a> on former coaches Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore, before imposing further <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.org\/media-center-overwhelming-evidence-shows-impermissible-scouting-scheme-in-michigan-football-program\/\">penalties<\/a> on the program in Aug 2025. Amid the controversy, former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss and Moore were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/matt-weiss-placed-on-leave\/\">each<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/sherrone-moore-fired-with-cause-after-two-seasons-as-michigan-head-coach\/\">fired<\/a> for cause following violations of the University\u2019s personal conduct policy.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Manuel became a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee in the 2022-2023 season, before being promoted to chair last year. The CFP confirmed to the Daily that Manuel\u2019s term ended following the 2024-2025 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The University issued a broad summary of the Jenner &amp; Block findings but did not publish any documents related to the report, citing privacy and attorney-client privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cInvestigation and culture review remain confidential,\u201d the statement read. \u201c \u2026 The information below reflects the principal facts of the investigation and culture review, recommendations, and the actions the University is taking to implement them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It remains to be seen which intended actions will come to fruition.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Michigan president Domenico Grasso announced Monday morning that Warde Manuel will step down from his role as athletic director at the end of the 2026 calendar year. \u201cToday, I am announcing that Warde Manuel has told me that he would like to step down,\u201d Grasso said. \u201cI have the deepest respect for Warde [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1921,3092,5155,222,864,5110],"class_list":["post-5863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-athletic","tag-director","tag-manuel","tag-michigan","tag-step","tag-warde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5865,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5863\/revisions\/5865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}