Michigan Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel has been working tirelessly to gather information during the COVID-19 crisis and putting together different models for the athletic department based on what’s next.

One of the problems, of course, is that nobody really knows what’s next when it comes to the unpredictability of the virus that’s paralyzed the country.

One thing is also certain, Manuel said on the recent In The Trenches Podcast with Jon Jansen — everything at U-M will be driven by safety, not money.

“We’re trying to figure out the next best steps for everybody’s health and safety and progress … we’re still trying to continue to figure out the best path for our student athletes, our coaches, our programs, our fans, our donors as it relates to Michigan athletics,” Manuel said Monday. “We have a great team of people in all those categories that are really pulling their weight and doing a phenomenal job really coming together.

“I’m very pleased again with the tremendous leadership of my staff and how people are really moving forward … I have to give a lot of credit to my coaches, my academic staff, support administrators for really setting the path overall. I give some feedback to our support administrators and some outreach, but I’ve really relied on the constant connection our coaches are having with our student athletes. Our support administrators are making sure we are sharing information that our coaches can share to our student athletes.”

There are several pertinent questions when it comes to allowing students to partake in organized events, one involving the unpredictability of how the disease affects certain areas potentially affecting some schools but not others. Manuel and the other Big Ten A.D.’s haven’t talked about possibly leaving some programs behind and proceeding.

“We haven’t gotten to that level of discussion yet,” he said. “We’ve talked about a lot of different things, but we really haven’t gone down to the level of what if 10 of 12 can play, what if it’s eight, what’s the cutoff, those kinds of things. I think we’re all moving in the direction of having hope that we all can play, and then we’ll see how things are going.

“We have pretty much been a group that is locked into being fair to everyone. In setting the June 1 day as a possible day for us to return to organized team activities that you can have in the offseason, it was one of those things where we looked at the dates by which certain states were out to in terms of stay at home orders and the things they were dealing with, and June 1 was the furthest point out everyone would be able to start as of that time … would we extend that to an entire season if some people can’t? I’m not sure where that will go. Again, that conversation hasn’t occurred with me … and we haven’t talked about it as a group.”

Most of the student athletes have gone back home to be with their families, Manuel noted, and 250 or so have signed up for spring online classes. They remain in wait and see mode, but there will undoubtedly be some changes when they return.

"They are continuing to drive their education forward,” Manuel said. “They just have such a positive attitude right now around it, and like me are hoping that the fall welcomes them back on campus in a manner with all the things we’ll have to do in our society and on campus with masks temperature checks and the things that are going to become the new normal for many of us … Those things are in the works. Whether it will be every building on campus, all that stuff, I don’t know.

“For us in athletics, it’s one of the major things we will do at all of our facilities. We’ll start with the daily walk into the building, a temperature check, answer questions on how you feel. We are projecting we’ll need a test at some point this summer, late summer hopefully in terms of being able to test all our staff and student athletes on a consistent basis when necessary.”

One thing is certain, he added — he won’t suggest having student-athletes return if it’s deemed unsafe for the regular student population.

“There are a lot of things I hope athletically get to be done, but the main thing is we want to make sure our students and student athletics can come back and experience Michigan and our education here in Ann Arbor, because I think that’s a big key for us being able to play sports is to have our student athletes back in Ann Arbor with all the other students,” he said. “To bring our student athletics back without all other students is just not a position I’m going to advocate for. Our student athletes are students first, and if the students aren’t required to come back to Ann Arbor, it’s going to be hard for me to tell our student athletes they need to come back.”

“We have Three Models”

Manuel said he’d leave it to the [health] experts to speak on what exactly needs to happen in order for it to be safe for athletics.

“That’s who I’m listening to,” he said. “We’ll take in their thoughts, the public health officials. Dean of Public Health, Dr. Bowman, has been on calls with the COVID team I’m part of with the University. We have discussions every day usually for at least an hour, hour and half, two hours on different topics related to that.

“I think the good news is the preparation to return is being thought through. Ultimately, the president and the board will make a decision on when and if classes will start, those things. I’m going to rely on their guidance. I don’t want to misrepresent where they are now. Safety and the health of our students, staff and faculty are primary. I will tell you that. Nobody is talking about doing this because we need dollars or want to save the institution money for athletic needs.”

It helps to support every sport on campus, and long term that will eventually come back, he continued.

“We just have to find a way in the short term, in the interim, to deal with those issues,” Manuel said. “That’s just what you have to deal with when you put health and safety first. The economics of it … it hurts, but not like people getting sick and potentially dying or giving the disease to somebody who eventually passes away.

“I never would advocate for that, and I’m proud that nobody has put money or anything ahead of the health and safety of people who are part of this university.”

The A.D. has obviously taken a financial hit, and they are preparing for different scenarios going forward.

"We have about three models … a model that is going to be different in terms of the base of revenue going into this,” Manuel said. “We know even if everyone was allowed to come back to the games given surveys and everything I’ve seen, we wouldn’t expect everyone to come into the stadium. And then I’m just not sure … we’re uncertain if anybody is going to be able to come to watch our games, and that’s any games — football, field hockey, soccer, cross country as we start into our fall with our competitions.

“For us, it could be the potential of no fans for any of our student athletes. Obviously, that has an impact, if not only for this year for next year, depending on people. We’ve announced plans and the way we would handle refunds; people could donate, could push it to next year, any of the three. They’ll make their choices if we don’t play this season.

“It’s a potential, significant, multimillion, tens of millions of dollar impact on our budget. We’re just trying to work through the best we can, a first model and a few others to try to figure out a few things that would be necessary in order for us to make it through a year with multiple possibilities … that we play games with some fans, play games with no fans or don’t play at all.

“It all has a significant impact on the scenarios around the finances and what we need to do and be able to do to deal with the ramifications of that financial.”

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