theathleticuk
At the June meeting of Michigans board of regents, Denise Ilitch Little Caesars pizza heir and part of the family that owns the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings said the board would meet in July to discuss the future of athletics.
After several months and roughly $12 million spent on external investigations, an honest conversation on that subject was long overdue.
Advertisement Instead, people tuning into Thursdays meeting in Traverse City heard some fascinating findings about the nesting habits of acorn ants, followed by several minutes of deafening feedback before the livestream cut out.
Thus ended another weird week at Michigan, the school that leads the nation in that category.
All of this is magnified because Michigan cant decide what to do with the findings of the Jenner & Block investigations into former football coach Sherrone Moore, his relationship with a staff member and the broader culture of the athletic department.
After Thursdays meeting, president Domenico Grasso told MLive that school leaders are still thinking about whether to release those findings to the public.
Meanwhile, athletic director Warde Manuel is left twisting in the wind.
If Michigan wants to move on from the mess surrounding Moore, theres one way to do it: Release the Jenner & Block findings with minimal redactions.
Make a decision about Manuels future and stand behind it.
Rip off the Band-Aid and let new football coach Kyle Whittingham coach his first season without the steady drip of negative headlines about the previous regime.
So far, Michigan has been unwilling to do that.
The school says documents related to the investigation are privileged and confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege.
The Wall Street Journal, citing the Jenner & Block findings, reported that Manuel instructed Moore not to travel with his executive assistant in August 2024, but Manuels reasons for doing so remain unclear.
Without the full picture, its hard to reach an informed conclusion about whether Manuel should continue as athletic director.
In the wake of Moores firing and arrest, Michigan said it would gather the facts and leave no stone unturned.
Thats an admirable goal.
Expecting fans to accept the conclusions without seeing the work demands a level of trust that Michigan hasnt earned.
Michigan owes it to everyone, including Manuel, to be transparent about what the investigation found.
Advertisement By now, it should be painfully obvious that there are two factions at Michigan: one that wants Manuel gone and one that wants him to stay.
The anti-Manuel faction believes, not unreasonably, that an AD with less staying power would have been ousted several scandals ago.
The pro-Manuel faction sees the constant noise about his future as a calculated attempt to force him out.
Neither side is wrong in its diagnosis, and neither side has a monopoly on the truth.
The pattern played out again this week, starting with reports on social media that Manuel was negotiating his exit.
Manuel acknowledged that hes had conversations with the school about his future but told Yahoo Sports there were no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future.
The harder people try to push him out, the more Manuel seems to dig in.
Its a discredit to all involved that this has continued for so long.
Michigan could have made a call about Manuels future in December but decided to wait on the findings of the Jenner & Block investigation, surely knowing that the investigation would be seen as a referendum on Manuels leadership.
School leaders have seen the findings, but theyre still waffling, at least publicly.
If Michigan had a reason to fire Manuel for cause, it presumably would have done so by now.
Manuel has maintained that he acted appropriately, and unless the investigation showed otherwise, Michigan will have to decide whether a report thats merely unflattering is enough to justify further action.
Much has been made about whether Michigan knew enough to fire Moore before his assistant, Paige Shiver, disclosed their relationship in December 2025.
The information trickling out so far raises questions about whether Michigan should have known enough to steer clear of promoting Moore to the head coaching job in the first place.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Jenner & Block determined that Moores physical relationship with Shiver began in 2022, when Moore was an assistant coach and Shiver was an intern.
Moore became head coach two years later.
Its hard to believe that a thorough vetting wouldnt have turned up at least a hint of that relationship, enough that Michigan might have widened its search.
Advertisement The decision to promote Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh without interviewing outside candidates will go down as a massive mistake.
Michigan had just won a national championship and could have swung for the fences.
What seemed like the safe hire was, in fact, a major risk.
None of that means Manuel should lose his job.
Michigan has several paths it could choose, including a transition plan that allows Manuel to stay on until a new president arrives.
Whatever Michigan decides, the school needs to make a decision and announce it soon, for the sake of everyone Manuel, his new football coach and fans who just want to move on.
For $12 million in legal bills, fans ought to get some closure.
Michigan owes them at least that much.