Univ. of Michigan AD Warde Manuel “wasn’t to blame for every issue at Michigan, but he was in charge,” according to Austin Meek of THE ATHLETIC. Warde announced Monday that he will step down at the end of the year. For all of the “good things he accomplished,” the “accumulation of scandals made it untenable for him to continue” as AD. Meek writes it is “difficult to move forward with a perpetually embattled athletic director whose future is a constant subject of speculation.” Meek: “Criticism of Manuel could be over the top, but it often seemed that Michigan’s siege mentality made it harder for Manuel to see that his critics sometimes had a point.” Manuel’s “authenticity endeared him to a lot of Michigan fans and many of the school’s big donors.” Michigan “wasn’t a stepping-stone for him; it was the only place he wanted to be.” His “desire to keep a low profile served him well when times were good but created a void in times of crisis.” Meek: “Though Manuel is leaving Michigan in a solid position, the next athletic director will need a different skill set, particularly in managing organizational culture and being a public face for the athletic department.” Hiring an AD who can connect with Michigan’s wealthy donors “is likely to be a priority.” Though Michigan is conducting a search for a new president, sitting President Domenico Grasso said that he would “begin the search for a new AD, which suggests Michigan won’t necessarily have to wait for a presidential transition” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/21).
CRUCIAL DECISION UP NEXT: CBSSPORTS.com’s Shehan Jeyarajah wrote Michigan “faces one of the most important hires in athletic department history.” Manuel has “long been a controversial figure at Michigan,” dating back to his earliest conflicts with former football coach Jim Harbaugh. In the wake of NIL, Manuel “was conservative, despite leading one of the richest schools in college athletics.” However, “the winning has been impossible to ignore.” Jeyarajah: “The mayhem has been a dark cloud over the athletic department at a time that should have been celebratory. NIL has become a major advantage for the Wolverines, making it perhaps the most attractive program in America. Mixed with the university’s prestige and status within the Big Ten, the draws are obvious.” Jeyarajah wrote Michigan “doesn’t have to hire a short-term athletic director to move on from Manuel. But they need an adult in the room” (CBSSPORTS.com, 7/20).
FULL RESET: SI’s Bryan Fischer wrote no matter who the Wolverines go with, there “should be a clear focus as part of what should be a natural, and full, reset in leadership.” The “Michigan Man ethos is no more and so should be the preference for going with someone who has previous ties to the way things have been run” dating back to the days of late football coach Bo Schembechler (SI, 7/20).
JOB ISN’T OVER YET: Grasso noted that Manuel will “help implement sweeping reforms before he scoots out the door.” USA TODAY’s Blake Toppmeyer wrote when one of the guys who “steered Michigan into this mess is tapped to help spearhead reform, it makes me skeptical that Michigan is serious about reform.” Law firm Jenner & Block asserted that Manuel “failed ‘to quickly and effectively act on allegations of wrongdoing’ by athletics employees.” Toppmeyer wrote that is a “lawyerly way of saying Manuel was slow footed to root out cheating.” Instead of firing Manuel, Grasso “wants him to stick around for several months and be part of the reform he failed to implement” in his 10-plus years as AD. Toppmeyer: “Manuel’s failures are part of why reform is needed” (USA TODAY, 7/20).
RUN ITS COURSE: YAHOO SPORTS’ Dan Wolken noted while there was “no smoking gun that would allow the school to get rid of Manuel without paying him, the buildup of 10 years running a place as complicated as Michigan added up until it reached a critical mass.” Wolken: “In other words, they just got tired of the guy.” Even Manuel’s missteps “were not far outside the realm of what’s normal or even expected in organizations like athletic departments.” It is “impossible to have a finger on the pulse of everything that goes on every day.” It just “got to the point where enough issues popped up under Manuel’s watch that became divisive and ultimately a liability for the school’s key stakeholders.” Wolken wrote that is “business. And it would be nice if Michigan acknowledged it rather than trying to be the hero of its own morality play” (YAHOO SPORTS, 7/20).
