Warde Manuel is out. A very expensive report led to his dismissal, but did it teach us anything we didn’t already know?
That’s at the heart of the latest Wolverine Confidential podcast.
Co-hosts Andrew Kahn, Aaron McMann, and Ryan Zuke discuss Manuel’s tenure as Michigan’s athletic director, which will come to an end at the end of 2026. But if the Jenner and Block investigation revealed issues in the athletic department — and it did — why is Manuel staying on through the end of the year and advising Michigan’s president?
“What I think is frustrating,” Zuke said, “is it’s basically Michigan telling us, ‘Oh, this is what we found from the investigation.’ They’re not allowing anybody to make conclusions for themselves.”
The investigation was launched way back in December. “So conveniently, I think the time spent kicking the can down the road has allowed Michigan to kind of rid itself of all the folks who may have known (about wrongdoing),” McMann said. “So then we were left with this report saying, ‘No one left really knew a whole lot or we can’t find any concrete evidence pointing to that.’”
The entire episodes focuses on Manuel and the report, the “key findings” of which were released this week.
Listen via the YouTube embed above, on Spotify, or anywhere you find podcasts.
