Report: Michigan's AD told fired football coach Sherrone Moore not to travel with staffer before 2024 season
How long before the fall of 2025 did administrators in Michigan's athletic department know about the relationship between former football coach Sherrone Moore and former football staffer Paige Shiver?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Moore was told to not travel with Shiver in the fall of 2024. The two had been in a multiyear relationship that ended in 2025, shortly before Moore was fired.
The revelation that Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told Moore that Shiver could not be with him on trips came as part of a months-long investigation into Michigan's athletic department. The investigation by law firm Jenner & Block began after the Moore scandal unfolded as part of a larger look into the multiple scandals that have happened at the school in recent years.
"One major warning sign appeared before Moore even took the sideline for his first game as head coach. Two days before the 2024 season kickoff, athletic director Warde Manuel raised concerns with Moore about the coach's close relationship with his executive assistant, Paige Shiver, according to the law firm's findings.
"I told him I didn't remember if we had already discussed, but that she couldn't accompany him on trips," Manuel wrote in a previously unreported note on Aug. 29, 2024, handwritten on Michigan letterhead.
Manuel's future at Michigan has been a point of discussion in recent days. He told Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger on Monday that "there are no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future." The investigation, per the WSJ, also notes multiple other prior instances of allegations regarding the relationship.
Moore took over for former coach Jim Harbaugh after the Wolverines won the national title in January of 2024 and Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers. Moore was fired for cause in December of 2025 after the school said that it had evidence of his relationship with Shiver. Moore was initially charged with felony home invasion after he went to Shiver's house following his firing and allegedly threatened to take his own life.
In April, Moore, who is married with three children, was sentenced to probation as part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors that reduced the charges to misdemeanor malicious use of a telecommunications device involving a domestic relationship and misdemeanor trespassing.
Less than two weeks after Moore's sentencing hearing, Shiver said in an appearance on "Good Morning America" that other Michigan coaches knew about the relationship the two had and that they had been together since January 2022. Moore was an assistant on Harbaugh's staff at the time, and Shiver said she became pregnant with Moore's child months later. However, she had an abortion after she was medically advised to have the procedure because of her Pompe Disease diagnosis.
She said in the interview that Moore knew of her decision to have the abortion. Per the WSJ, the investigation uncovered that she told Moore that she went to a hospital for postpartum depression after the procedure and that Harbaugh "helped me get into the head person here" but that Harbaugh did not know the exact reason for her visit.
After Moore was sentenced, Manuel said that he had felt "betrayed" by Moore. Moore, who had served as Michigan's interim coach on two occasions in 2023 because of Harbaugh suspensions, went 17-8 in his two seasons as the team's head coach.
