Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, a former Michigan football player and athletic department administrator, has been in the role since 2016, and last December, he received a five-year contract extension that will take him into 2030.

Manuel, 56, who most recently was the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee in its first year of an expanded 12-team playoff, recently sat down with The Detroit News to discuss a number of topics involving Michigan athletics, including the NCAA investigation and an illegal sign-stealing scheme, the potential for advertising at Michigan Stadium, revenue sharing and the transfer of academic credits.

He also discussed his two most recent coaching hires, football head coach Sherrone Moore and basketball head coach Dusty May. Moore’s Wolverines went 8-5 in his first season at the helm, including three straight wins to conclude the season, and May currently is 19-5, after a win over Purdue on Tuesday put the Wolverines alone in first place in the Big Ten.

Manuel was particularly impressed that Moore’s team rebounded after losing four of five games to win the final three — the first a win over Northwestern in the final home game to reach bowl eligibility, followed by an upset of Ohio State in Columbus and a surprising win over Alabama in the bowl game.

“It’s not easy when you lose to keep a team together, and you can see how this team stayed together and finished,” Manuel said. “There wasn’t one game that I felt that we weren’t playing hard, that we weren’t motivated, that we weren’t playing for each other or Michigan, or everyone on the team. You can see how it came together.

“I credit Sherrone in his leadership for that. And then you look at what he’s doing recruiting now, the way he’s recruiting, the class he’s bringing in, great transfers out of the portal, so I’m very pleased with where we are now and where he is as the leader of the team.”

Moore has been impressed with how May, hired last March, was able to build a roster that had been depleted by graduation and transfers. The Wolverines currently are ranked No. 20 in the AP poll.

“He’s probably ahead, quite frankly, of where I thought he would be given when I hired him,” Manuel said. “Did I think in this first year we’d be where we are? I’d be lying to say, ‘Yeah.’ We got three kids left on the roster (when he took over) who haven’t gone in the portal. That would be like me saying, ‘But what I want you to do is get us back into the top 25 at some point during the year,’ and he’s already done it.”

Here are some highlights of the conversation with Manuel. Some of the answers have been edited for clarity and brevity:

Q: Where are you with advertising in Michigan Stadium? You and the athletic department gave a survey to fans, and I’m assuming there’s some backlash about advertising in the stadium.

Manuel: “First of all, let me just say this: We have no plans to put advertising in Michigan Stadium right now. None. We have Nike shoes, Nike shirts. We have Gatorade on the bench, we have headsets with stuff on it, but there’s no permanent signage. There’s nothing we do on the videoboard to commercialize what we do, and there’s no plans to do it. I’m not presenting anything to President (Santa) Ono. I have not presented anything to the Board to do it.

But what we do know is that it brings in to many institutions at our level, tens of millions of dollars to advertise in the stadium. We also know that at Michigan, it is not in our culture to have advertising in our stadium, permanent advertising, OK? How much it would bring into Michigan, I don’t know. But if you look around at other institutions, Ohio State, you look at Texas, you look at other places that have advertising like that in significant numbers. In the place where we’re adding revenue share of $20 million, we’ve decided not to reduce any sports, we’re not cutting back on any scholarships for any sports. We’re actually adding some scholarships to some sports. We have to find a way, so we’re looking at ways to cut expenses and increase revenue.

And so the people who are mad that we did a survey would also be mad if I did something and we didn’t do a survey. I get it, but there’s no plan right now. It’s just feedback. We just needed to understand where our fans are. If the idea is that we don’t want to do that, then the question is, what other revenue buckets do we look at to increase revenue as we look at expenditures and those kinds of things? Does anybody say the Lions shouldn’t be doing it, that it’s terrible that you have advertising like that in professional sports or in other stadiums? But is it time for Michigan to do it now? I don’t know. If I had my druthers, I played here when there was no signage. I’ve been the AD here; I worked here. Do I want to have signage in Michigan Stadium? No, but we also have to really come to the understanding that we need to find ways to continue to drive revenue streams to invest in our student-athletes and our sports programs so we can continue to do what we’ve done for the last eight years.”

Q: Why is signage such a flashpoint?

Manuel: “Because it’s never been here. People were mad when we put up the two towers (on Michigan Stadium). ‘It wasn’t Michigan Stadium.’ People were mad. I was here when we went from the scoreboard to the video board, and people were mad. It’s just a culture thing, and I understand it completely. For people who say, ‘Well, you don’t understand it, Warde,’ really negates the fact that I actually played in the stadium, that I actually worked out in that stadium in the summer, that I actually worked at the university. I was over football before I left and came back to be AD. I completely understand our culture. But sometimes we have to adapt, and we have done that over time, and the question that we have to face is, if not now, then what do we do? That’s it.”

Q: What do people in the survey say?

Manuel: “I think the answer will be, it’s not who we are. You get me? And there’s nothing wrong with that answer because it’s absolutely true. The reason we don’t have it is because we have decided it’s not what we want in our house. Other people can have stuff in their house. We can go visit other people’s houses, and we see it, and we go, ‘You know what? I don’t want that in my house.’ That’s what it is.”

Q: What will revenue sharing at Michigan look like?

Manuel: “We’re working through finalization of what we’re going to do, but it’s, it’s probably going to be close to the distribution model that’s in the settlement. And I think that’s what all of us individually are coming to in the conversations that we have in the Big Ten is the distribution model that the settlement is following in terms of how that back pay is being distributed because the back pay is really being distributed off of the revenue that we’re trying to distribute now.

We haven’t settled exactly everything, but football bringing in the significant bulk of the revenue will obviously get a bigger share than everybody else. But exact percentages, I’m not ready to say, because they’re adjusting and the money keeps changing. You know, at one point, it was $23 (million) then it was $22, now it’s $20.5. We really won’t know until the first quarter of this year, April. We all have to submit the NCAA our audited financial statements from last year, so once they get all that, and they can see, and they can compare apples to apples.”

Q: You mentioned recruiting while discussing Moore, but now, with the involvement of donors like Larry Ellison and his wife, Jolin, and the recruitment of Bryce Underwood, is there ever going to be a concern that these donors are going to make a call to Sherrone and say, ‘I invested in this guy. When are you going to start playing him?’ How do you make sure that doesn’t happen?

Manuel: “It won’t happen. I think my leadership and how I’ve led this department is about allowing our coaches to make the decisions, listening to people, taking their input. But ultimately, the decision is on the head coach of who to play It’s not going to be any one person or donor, or anybody telling me, we need to do it. Look, I had a lot of donors tell me to get rid of Jim (Harbaugh) back in the day. But our donors, for the most part, pretty much 99.9% of them don’t do that. They’ll have conversations, they’ll give their thoughts, but they’re not saying, ‘If you don’t do this, I’m going to withhold all my donations.’

I listen to people. I’m not one of these people that cuts people off. You want to talk about it, and let’s talk about it, but we’re going to stop short of you telling me what to do, in terms of, you can suggest what you think I should do, but nobody’s going to get into that point. It won’t be a donor making a decision, and nobody has tried to put themselves in that position with me. I don’t anticipate any problem from many of our donors.”

Q: Did you ever imagine you’d see the day that you’d be making less than the quarterback?

Manuel: “It doesn’t matter. If you had asked me that question five years ago, no. I’m also used to a time when you look at professional sports, and many of the players make more than the head coach, and many of the players and the coaches make more than the GMs; it’s the way it is.”

Q: So what do we call this now?

Manuel: “College athletics. It’s a new model. What I’ve said to our coaches is that this shouldn’t be transactional. This is still Michigan. This is still about academics. What we’re going to give these young people is not going to change. The biggest value for the rest of your life is if you earn a degree from the University of Michigan, and you’re in that group of alumni and people that look after each other and are smart and can help and provide you with opportunities to do because you’re a part of the Michigan family. It opens the doors for you for the rest of your life, because NIL, it’s a made-up term by the NCAA, but NIL is what we do every day, and I’m trying to try to get our kids to understand, your NIL is for the rest of your life. You’re going to get paid off your NIL, and what is behind that NIL? Your name, your image and your likeness, if you’ve got a Michigan degree behind you.

It’s not, ‘Here’s what we’re paying you, and here’s what we’re going to do for your NIL.’ It’s got to be part of a package. That’s why I say, we call it college athletics. The college part should still be in there. The academics should still be a part of what we do even though we’re sharing part of the revenue. What they’re bringing, it still should be a part of the value proposition of what we do, and we should not lose that, and we should not let people minimize that and try to take away from it.”

Q: In terms of academics, what is the issue with credits transferring from other schools with transfer athletes? Will that change?

Manuel: “The university is a great university. The professors, deans, chairs of different departments have their requirements and expectations, just like our coaches have their requirements and expectations of what they want. And so, I’m not going to lament or try to change what they want, for people to come in and get a Michigan degree. If we’ve got to deal with it, we deal with it. That’s what makes Michigan uniquely Michigan, is we do things the way we do it. It’s something that we value from an academic standpoint and the way we look at it. I’m never, ever, ever going to talk negatively about Michigan and schools and colleges having a high expectation of people who transfer in.”

Q: Why do you think there’s so much backlash toward you?

Manuel: “I don’t know. You have to ask the people who hide behind fake pictures and fake names on why there’s animosity towards me. I think in leadership, you always have to have somebody to blame when things don’t go the way you want them to go, and so they turned to me to put the blame on me about different things that happen. And I’m fine with that. I’m a big fella. I got big shoulders, and I could deal with that. A lot of stuff that’s out there in the atmosphere, I just don’t pay it much mind.

I’m not somebody that puts my finger in the wind and determines how to move. People don’t think I move fast enough. Some people think I move too fast on things. For me, it’s just I do it the way I think is in the best interest of this department and this university. And my record — our record at Michigan — since I’ve been here speaks for itself. I’m not one that toots my own horn, so I’m not, and I think that’s part of the issue, too, that people have filled the void that creates that negative narrative in this day and age.”

Q: You were given a contract extension. Will this be your last job?

Manuel: “I hope so. I’d love to finish my career here. This last contract, if I finish it, that would be a good time to evaluate whether or not it’s time to move on and g retire, not move on to another institution, or to stay for a few more years, depending on what the President and the Board want to do at that point in time. I’m extremely happy to be here, and I don’t need to go anywhere else. Nothing else entices me.”

Q: Was being part of the College Football Committee and this year being the chair worth it?

Manuel: “It was a phenomenal experience in my career. I’ve served on many different community committees and different things, and by far, it was the most rewarding experience in the three years combined. In this year, it was a little bit, well, a lot more work as the chair, but it was a great group of committee members, 12 others. I’m one of 13 and Rich Clark, the new executive director and staff, they were awesome in their support and their guidance.”

Q: Do you think the committee got it right?

Manuel: “I think we got it right, no matter the results of the games, because we spend a lot of time, a lot of conversations, a lot of discussions and arguments on getting the best top 25 right. Regardless of the game, the results of the game, that’s on the coaches and the players, that’s not on us.”

Q: Where are you with the NCAA investigation?

(Since this interview, Michigan has filed a response to the NCAA’s Notice of Allegation that was delivered last August).

Manuel: “Can’t comment.”

Q: Do you feel confident?

Manuel: “I feel we are preparing what we need to prepare as a university, working with and doing everything with the NCAA to move the case forward and fully participating in that from our standpoint. But beyond that, I can’t talk about the case.”

Q: Is there a timeline? Do you see it resolving soon?

Manuel: “We’d all like it to be done sooner than later, but there’s a process that the NCAA has established and has in place for cases like this. We’re following those guidelines and going through it and doing everything based on the way it’s laid out in the process.”

Q: Some Michigan fans think the NCAA has it out for Michigan. Do you think that’s the case?

Manuel: (lengthy pause) “In my heart of hearts, I would think that the answer is no, and that they’re good people that I know. And I’ve gotten to know (NCAA president) Charlie Baker. I think he’s a good person. I know many of the enforcement staff, and I think they’re good people. I wouldn’t say it’s that way, but I would say I understand why people could perceive it a certain way, but I don’t. I wouldn’t say they’re out for Michigan, but it’s just one of these things where you hope there’s balance, put it that way.”