Michigan’s search for a new athletics director is officially getting underway, and the timing matters. After months of knowing Warde Manuel will step down at the end of the 2026 calendar year, the university announced Monday that it is launching a “national search” for his replacement.
The move gives Michigan a chance to reset at a moment when the department has already gone through plenty of change. C.
Cybele Raver is set to become the university’s next president on Dec. 1, making her the third person to hold the job in a full-time capacity since Mark Schlissel’s firing in early 2022. She will play a role in the AD search alongside current president Domenico Grasso and the search firm ZRG Turnkey, the same firm that helped hire Manuel in 2016 and later assisted with the hires of Dusty May in 2024 and Kyle Whittingham in 2025.
Raver will have the final say on the hire, with the board of regents still needing to sign off afterward.
Michigan has not named any public candidates yet, but the search is clearly moving behind the scenes. With Raver preparing to take over and the athletic department trying to get its house in order before the end of the football season, the university can now start filling in one of its biggest leadership gaps.
Here are five names that fit the bill for the job.
John Cunningham is the athletics director at Cincinnati, where he has led the Bearcats since Dec. 2019.
His tenure has included program success and a move from the American Conference into the Big 12. Cunningham also brings Big Ten experience from his time as a deputy AD at Minnesota from 2016 to 2019.
Candice Storey-Lee has been Vanderbilt’s AD since 2020, and her track record is hard to ignore. She hired Clark Lea, Mark Byington and Shea Ralph to lead the football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball programs, respectively. Vanderbilt has also held its own in the SEC during the NIL era.
David Benedict has run UConn’s athletic department since 2016, the same year Manuel took over at Michigan. In 2025, he was named the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics AD of the Year.
UConn’s basketball programs have stayed elite under his watch, and his hires of Dan Hurley and Jim Mora have paid off. Hurley is a two-time national champion, while Mora guided the football team to back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2024 and 2025.
Jeramiah Dickey has been Boise State’s AD since 2021 after earlier stops as an athletics administrator at Baylor and Houston. Under his leadership, Boise State football has continued to thrive, and he hired Spencer Danielson in 2023.
Dickey also helped steer the Broncos through their move into the Pac-12 from the Mountain West. In 2025, he was named the Sports Business Journal AD of the Year.
There’s no public list yet, but Michigan’s search is now real, and these are the kinds of administrators who make sense as the Wolverines look for the next person to lead the department.
In Other News...
Michigans Next AD Could Decide More Than Wolverines Fans Realize
Warde Manuels decision to step down at the end of December has put Michigan into the kind of search that tends to ripple well beyond the athletic department. The Wolverines are looking for a new athletic director at a time when the football program is already under pressure, and that means the hire will not just be about administration or fundraising. It could shape how the school approaches one of its biggest public-facing decisions in the months ahead.
Among the names circulating are Candice Story Lee of Vanderbilt, Katie Fraumann, who has ties to Michigan, and David Benedict of UConn. Each brings a different background, but the common thread is the same: this is a hire that may define the direction of the department as much as any move on the field. For Michigan fans, the real intrigue is not only who gets the job, but how quickly that person decides the Wolverines need a different path in football. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Still Has One Problem It Must Solve Before Rutgers
Michigan still has one major decision hanging over it before Rutgers, and it is the sort that can shape everything else on the field. Kyle Whittingham has not settled on a starting quarterback, with freshman Tommy Carr and sophomore Bryce Underwood both in the mix after uneven recent showings. Carr flashed some promise even while dealing with turnovers and sacks, while Underwood has struggled in his last two starts but still carries a leadership presence inside the program.
The next few days of practice will go a long way toward sorting it out, with the staff planning to use those reps to narrow the competition and make the call closer to game time. For Michigan, it is more than just a roster question. The Wolverines are trying to find the steadier option before a conference game that can help set the tone for the stretch ahead, and the answer at quarterback remains the biggest unresolved piece. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Run Game Faces Its Biggest Test Yet At Rutgers
Michigan is heading into a game at Rutgers needing its ground attack to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The Wolverines have leaned on the run game as the most reliable part of an offense that has struggled in several areas this season, and the matchup looks favorable on paper, with Rutgers sitting near the bottom of the Big Ten in run defense. Even with Michigan favored by 14.5 points, this has the feel of a game where the Wolverines need their identity to show up early rather than rely on another tight finish.
The broader concern is that Michigan has already spent much of the season playing closer games than expected and surviving on the margins more often than it would like. Against Rutgers, the path is fairly clear: establish the run, control the pace and avoid giving an underdog enough chances to hang around. If the Wolverines cannot do that against the conferences weakest run defense, it would say plenty about where this offense really stands heading into the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]