Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel to step down by end of year

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FOX 2 - Embattled Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel is stepping down.

The backstory:

The announcement came Monday morning in a statement from University of Michigan President Domenico Grasso.

Grasso said Manuel told him he wanted to step down, but that he will stay in his current role until the end of the calendar year, while a search for his successor is launched.

"I am announcing that Ward Manuel has told me he would like to step down," Grasso said in a video address. "I have the deepest respect for Ward 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 adviser to the president and help implement these reforms, and that will be launching a national search for our next athletic director."

This comes after Manuel's tenure has been plagued with scandals, including former football coach Jim Harbaugh and the scouting and sign-stealing investigation involving Connor Stallions.

Most recently, football coach Sherrone Moore was fired following a criminal investigation he eventually pleaded no contest to lesser charges to, connected to an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. That incident prompted the broader investigation.

Defenders of Manuel will point out he presided over NCAA championships in football, coming in 2023 and in men's basketball in 2026.

The news comes after an investigation by the law firm Jenner & Block to conduct two independent reviews.

Investigation findings:

According to Grasso, the investigation found "serious concerns that require immediate action."

Grasso listed off failures in:

Accountability
Structural deficiencies
Weaknesses in our reporting and support systems
Concerns about retaliation

Grasso said changes at the school will start with empowering the athletics compliance team with standardizing the investigation process.

He added that the department's HR will have more power with advisement on personnel issues, enhanced background checks, and a stronger discipline policy.

The last improvement Grasso touted as a response to the review is that student-athletes will have confidential, independent support for personnel issues.

Dig deeper:

The Moore case was part of a series of incidents after the Harbaugh suspensions.

Former University of Michigan quarterback coach Matt Weiss is currently facing federal charges accusing him of hacking female athletes' accounts.

Weiss was fired in 2023 after failing to cooperate with the university's investigation into the case, was recently charged with 24 federal counts including unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft.

According to a federal indictment, Weiss allegedly began accessing information, including social media, email, and cloud storage accounts, as early as 2015, before he worked at U of M. Authorities said he continued to do so until 2023.

Meanwhile Latroy Lewis, a former UM defensive graduate assistant and defensive analyst is under a criminal investigation.

Police are accusing him of an alleged sexual assault in December 2024, while Lewis worked for the University of Michigan under former football coach Sherrone Moore.

The victim’s attorney said her client and Lewis first met on a dating app and met in person in December 2024. The attorney said that Lewis sexually assaulted her client. A second sex assault allegedly happened in January of 2025 at the victim's residence.

She also says that between the two incidents, her client told Sherrone Moore what had happened.

Manuel hired U-M basketball coach Dusty May, who left for the Dallas Mavericks this spring, but also handpicked Moore to take over the football program for Harbaugh when he left for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Related:

Manuel is a Michigan alum who played in the late 1980s under legendary coach Bo Schembechler.