Warde Manuel, who played for Bo Schembechler, will serve out the year as Michigan’s AD but not before passing GO and not before collecting something in the neighborhood of $6 million.
Warde Manuel is on his way out as Michigan’s AD. But why later and a lot richer and why not now? It’s Michigan.
Warde Manuel will work and be paid by the University of Michigan until the end of 2026.
Actually, that’s not technically true. While Manuel is an employee of the university, occupies an office on university grounds, represents the university in every facet of his job, wears free maize and blue apparel, sold his soul to cover up misdeeds under his authority and acted out his own misdeeds, interim president Domenico Grasso does not sign Manuel’s paycheck.
Manuel’s position, and the entire athletic department, are self-funded. This bastion of integrity receives no money from state taxes, it doesn’t occupy a single line in the state budget, it gets nothing from the university’s budget, and nothing from student fees.
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The same is true of Ohio State. It’s the norm.
With mega TV contracts, ticket sales and licensing deals, these wealthy athletic departments don’t need my money, your money or some poor guy’s money living off the grid in the UP.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes the OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
But this financial freedom should not be rewarded when a school’s integrity is burned.
Not when the university still has firing and hiring power. Not when a university president with a spine can clean house. Not when doing the right thing should be the only thing. At Michigan, Grasso answers to an esteemed body they call the Board of Regents.
But, in the Michigan case, athletic independence is apparently held in the highest regard by presidents and regents alike. Manuel and his staff work from a financial ledger the president’s office or the regents don’t want to cross. Why? I couldn’t guess. That’s how preposterous it is that Manuel still has a job and automatic payroll deposits.
Grasso, the lamest of ducks, looked at the findings of a law firm hired by the big M to investigate the conduct of former head football coach Sherrone Moore and the general culture and procedures of Manuel’s department. No doubt – at least we can hope – the culture and procedures investigation went as far back as the sign-stealing escapades Jim Harbaugh permitted to flourish.
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Grasso cited Manuel for “interference, poor oversight, and failures of accountability by the highest levels of university leadership.” But Grasso couldn’t bring himself to fire Manuel on the spot for cause and cease to pay him.
“The culture assessment is sobering,” Grasso said. “As a great university, we simply must do better.”
Even the blindest of UM apologists must agree with that statement. And, at the least, an interim AD should begin the process while Grasso conducts a national search to find as safe a hire as new football coach Kyle Whittingham. M fans should demand it.
But this is Michigan, and not Fielding Yost’s or Bo Schembechler’s Michigan. This Michigan makes its own rules. After all they’re “great,” and who better than the incumbents to decide what it means to “do better.”
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So they dig deeper and deeper holes in the name of protecting their image (how’s that going?). They either deny wrongdoing (Harbaugh) or they say what people want to hear (Grasso), then proceed with self-righteousness or in a deflection to make it seem not as bad as it actually is. If you fire Manuel today, you admit the fiasco is even worse than it appears (What haven’t we been told?). Plenty of corporate entities act this way, but you expect more from an institution of higher learning.
And so, Warde Manuel is Michigan’s $6 million buyout man, based on what he is owed for the final three years of his contract. A bargain, when you consider U of M paid lawyers $12 million to get to the sordid bottom of all this. At least the good people of Michigan didn’t pay for any of it with their high taxes, only high ticket prices.
Manuel, of course, believes he deserves the money and five months to clean out his office. He says he’s proud of much of what he has accomplished since 2016. No doubt, some ethical accomplishments exist on his performance reviews.
Jim Harbaugh presided over the sign-stealing scandal, actions that the entire University of Michigan brushed off. The fallout continues.
Most troubling of all is that Manuel gets to stick around to help begin the process of what Grasso says the next AD should do: provide good oversight and demand accountability.
“I am happy President Grasso asked me to stay on to work with him to implement the recommendations for continuous improvement,” Manuel said.
Continuous improvement? Gag me with a chinstrap. That corporate speak has been around for 30 years. It’s designed to make everyone think they are improving whatever they think needs improving while ignoring what matters most. Been there, lived through it.
The first training module for the next permanent AD will be titled: “What not to do: Lessons from a disgraced AD.”
Jim Harbaugh must chuckle every time he sips his morning coffee and thinks about the carnage he helped create and escape. And if Harbaugh had not left Ann Arbor … others would be blamed, he would probably still be coach and fans would have his back. And maybe, just maybe, his wrists would be smarting at least a little. If not, he’d be investing his own hefty buyout. Either way, Michigan will continue to do business as usual.
And people like me will continue to write things like this.
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