Michigan AD Warde Manuel talks about how Wolverines respond to NCAA investigations and leaks

As the 2024 college football season begins, Michigan is dominating the headlines for both good and bad reasons. The Wolverines are defending national champions and enter the fall with College Football Playoff hopes, while at the same time the program has faced two NCAA investigations – one for recruiting violations and the other for allegations of improper advanced scouting.

Michigan cannot comment publicly on the ongoing investigation, but AD Warde Manuel spoke to The Michigan Insider Wednesday morning about how he and his athletic department are dealing with the NCAA.

Manuel began by discussing the series of leaks about the investigation that have shaped public opinion about the Wolverines. He also answered questions about why Michigan hasn't taken a more aggressive approach in dealing with the NCAA.

Here is his statement:

Warde Manuel on the leaks in the NCAA investigation, which Michigan cannot comment on directly or respond to:

I find it totally unacceptable and ridiculous that people who have knowledge of what is going on or who have information about it are passing it on to the press and the public.

And we're trying to figure it out; we're just not letting it slide. We're actively trying to figure out where these leaks are coming from. And especially when it involves us. The problem is, it's hard to get to the bottom of it. That doesn't mean we're going to stop trying. Because it really doesn't help the process. It doesn't help the University of Michigan get through this. It doesn't help the NCAA. Whoever leaks it, it doesn't help what we're trying to do to solve the cases. And just getting things out there – in some cases, some of them are wrong; some of them I can't respond to if they're wrong. We feel like we can't talk about it publicly. But still, people are leaking things about the case. It's just disappointing and unnecessary and sad.

Among the leaks that shape public reporting on Warde Manuel and Michigan:

I am the head of this sports department and that brings with it the responsibility of having to take care of everything that happens.

I don't shy away from anything; I never have and I never will. I have faced things head on and dealt with the things that are in front of me. But when people attribute things to me in some cases that others have done, to me, quite frankly, that is just an attempt to shift responsibility and not deal with the reality of what happened and who caused it.

I can only deal with what is in front of me. I can only play with the cards I am dealt. I do not deal those cards for others or make individual decisions for them.

I don't accept it. I don't accept people saying, “Warde is to blame for this.” If they want to put it in that context, I'm not going to sit here and accept it, any more than they would accept it if they were in the same situation. The same people that want to impeach me for what's happening in the department, if they were sitting in that chair, you know what? They wouldn't do it either. They would deal with it the same way I deal with it. You're disappointed that you have to go through something like that, that you have to deal with things like that.

But the bottom line is you can't go back. You can't change time. It happens. Let's deal with it and move forward.

Why Michigan is not launching a full-scale fight against the NCAA:

We will fight when necessary, but we will also admit and confront the mistakes we have made.

I don't want people to think that we don't fight for what we believe is right just because we don't talk about it publicly and I can't either. We do. But at the same time, you have to understand that when we break the rules and we know we're breaking the rules, we have to admit it and move on and deal with it.

That's a duality. You feel like you have a responsibility to abide by the rules that we want to abide by. But if we feel like it's gone too far and we need to do something about it, then we will absolutely do that. From that perspective, I have people around me. We have advisers, we have people at the university who discuss that. It's not just Warde making the decision. It's a group that thinks about how to deal with these cases and the situations that arise. And so, to me, there are times when we're going to struggle, but there are also times when we're going to say, “We were wrong. We did it.” And that's the part, that's the duality that we have to have. We just can't do it publicly. But I don't want – to answer your question – people to think that we're just going to sit there and accept whatever is thrown our way.

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