The Weekender: Sherrone Moore Scandal Continues Pattern of Sexual Misconduct at Michigan, UNLV First to Adopt Jersey Sponsor and Utah Obtains Private Equity Deal

By George Eisner on December 14, 2025 at 2:35 pm
Former University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel and former head football coach Sherrone Moore
Left: Ryan Garza, USA TODAY NETWORK; Right: Junfu Han, USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Own the group chat with The Weekender, highlighting the biggest stories in college sports, standout writing from Eleven Warriors, and a glance at what's next.

Sherrone Moore, Mark Schlissel, and the Monsters Among Michigan Men

The wild scandal surrounding Sherrone Moore did not become an official story until his firing from the Michigan football program last Wednesday. However, most people within college football circles will tell you crude whispers of his misconduct had already began to circulate shortly after the Wolverines lost to Ohio State in Ann Arbor at the end of November.

Most well-adjusted folks without an axe to grind against That Team Up North reacted to the rumor with a healthy amount of skepticism, if not outright disbelief. Not only did it come off as obscene wishful thinking towards grounds for dismissal by vengeful Michigan fans seeking a scapegoat for losing The Game, but the circumstances given recent history at the school sounded too unbelievably foolish to be true.

The head coach of one of the most scrutinized football programs in America conducting an affair with a university employee just under four years after the same school fired its president for doing the same thing? Who would be stupid enough to believe that, let alone actually do it?

The events of this week will go down as yet another confirmation that truth often proves stranger than fiction. It seems impossible to ignore the parallels between Moore's conduct, the situation that unfolded relative to Michigan firing Mark Schlissel in January of 2022 and how it speaks to what Eleven Warriors beat reporter Andy Anders correctly described yesterday as "the Cesspool of the West."

In case you need a brief recap of the Schlissel saga, here it is courtesy of Anders:

"In December 2021, the Michigan Board of Regents received a complaint that university president Mark Schlissel was engaged in a sexual relationship with one of his subordinates. A brief investigation uncovered a years-long affair where Schlissel used his university email to send and receive inappropriate messages to and from the subordinate. He was fired in January 2022." — Andy Anders

Two days after Schlissel was fired, Claire Hao — the then-outgoing editor-in-chief of the school's student newspaper The Michigan Daily — published an op-ed in which she used the spectacle of Schlissel's downfall to illustrate the pattern of misconduct throughout the highest levels of the university.

Hao's piece references several instances of sexual impropriety that emerged or took place among university employees during her time there. In addition to the highly publicized Robert Anderson scandal tied to Bo Schembechler's time as head coach that came to light only months earlier, Hao highlighted eight other alleged scandals dating back only to September of 2018. Those included that of former provost and "second-highest ranking official at the university" Martin Philbert as well as a former chair of two of academic departments and six professors, three of which remained in a teaching capacity at the time of publishing.

In the third-to-final paragraph of Hao's op-ed, she achieved what would ultimately become a tragic moment of clairvoyance:

"But Schlissel’s firing spells trouble for the long-term goals of the university, particularly the ones that address its entrenched systemic problems around sustainability, sexual misconduct and diversity, equity and inclusion, to name a few. It’s short-term PR gold, taking the heat off of these issues as campus is distracted laughing at Schlissel. But while the regents may enjoy their political victory now, it may come back to bite them later. No matter what angle you see this mess from, the University of Michigan appears dysfunctional." — Claire Hao

One year after Hao wrote her article, Michigan fired former co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss for computer crimes. It later emerged that Weiss had allegedly hacked into student-athlete databases of over 100 universities, obtained personal information and medical records of more than 150,000 people and used their login credentials to access intimate photos of several thousands of female student-athletes. He received a 24-count indictment in March earlier this year.

Nine months later, Weiss' former Wolverine football colleague Moore would find himself facing his own criminal charges stemming from the subsequent meltdown of his own dismissal from the school.

What remains unclear at this stage is what Michigan's executive figures and Board of Regents plan to do with athletic director Warde Manuel. The school reportedly held a meeting on his fate earlier this week and will commission an investigation into the culture of the athletic department, but as of Sunday afternoon Manuel remains in charge despite much of the aforementioned misconduct happening under his watch.

Coincidentally, roughly 24 hours after Manuel fired Moore, details about how the former handled the situation surrounding the latter began to leak to journalists. Those included that Manuel terminated Moore's employment in a meeting with no human resources representative or campus security present as well as that two other previous investigations surrounding Moore's alleged conduct toward women had taken place.

If Michigan ultimately decides to dismiss Manuel after not immediately choosing such a course of action earlier this week, Hao may have already shed some light on the Board of Regents' reasons for doing so given how they handled the Schlissel situation:

"What I’m trying to say is the Board of Regents, this Board of Regents, releasing 118 pages of email evidence of the relationship between Schlissel and Individual 1 is unprecedented and not in the slightest motivated by 'our community and our state deserv(ing) as complete an understanding of this situation as possible.'

It is because they hate him and delight in being petty. If they wanted Schlissel to stay, we might’ve never known about this affair; it was merely the reason they were looking for all along to push him out faster." — Claire Hao

In that context, it seems worth considering whether or not the details of Moore's wrongdoings would have emerged to light had Michigan's trajectory this season as a football program measured up to the end of his predecessor's era.

UNLV Becomes First CFB Team to Add Jersey Sponsor

As corporate entities continue to creep into the NIL era of college football, UNLV announced on Monday that the university will become the first school to adopt a sponsor on its uniforms after coming to an $11 million agreement with regenerative medicine company Acesso Biologics.

A mockup in the promotional materials for the deal's announcement suggests the Acesso logo will find itself positioned on the front-right chest plate of the shoulder pad area on the Rebel uniforms.

The deal encompasses multiple teams within UNLV's athletic department and will last through the next five seasons. The Rebels will play the Ohio Bobcats in the Frisco Bowl on December 23rd, but it remains unclear if UNLV will immediately implement the jersey change in time for its final game of the current campaign.

Utah Athletic Department Strikes Private Equity Deal

Roughly a month ago, a $2.4 billion deal between the Big Ten and UC Investments lost momentum due to opposition from select schools in the conference. On Tuesday, the University of Utah announced it has entered into a first-of-its-kind private equity agreement with firm Otro Capital that could potentially reach $500 million in value.

Although the Big Ten and Big 12 each teased news of their own potential private equity agreements taking shape earlier this year, the partnership featuring Utah is the first of its kind to actually reach fruition with one school during the NIL era of college sports. On Friday, a report emerged that the Big 12 is now nearing a deal with a pair of firms that would provide each of its conference members with a similar dollar amount Utah plans on generating.

The framework for Utah's agreement will create a new business owned by the university foundation entitled Utah Brands & Entertainment LLC that will address matters such as sponsorships, ticket sales, event revenue and intellectual property agreements. Three days after the announcement of the deal, longtime head coach Kyle Whittingham announced he would be stepping down at the end of the Utes' football season after 21 years as head coach and 32 at the school.

Curiously, although speculation existed that Whittingham would retire at 66 years old, The Athletic later reported he may still seek other coaching opportunities beyond Utah.

ICYMI

“The Cesspool of the West”

As alluded to earlier in this article, Andy Anders did a phenomenal job yesterday organizing all of the scandals and stories that have emerged surrounding Michigan and its football program since just May of 2021. Arm yourself with knowledge for the next time a fan of the Wolverines attempts to cast moral judgment upon you, Ohio State or anyone else that would dare criticize TTUN for bad behavior.

Ohio State Sets New Program Record for Academic All-Big Ten Honorees

The list of accomplishments Ryan Day has achieved as head coach of the Buckeyes continues to grow as Ohio State saw a whopping 61 players earn Academic All Big-Ten honors on Wednesday. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible for selection due to an enrollment requirement of 12 months, which means 83.5 percent of all possible Buckeyes earned the distinction.

Film Study: Coroner Jones Conducts the B1G Title Game Autopsy

If you've missed the last couple Film Studies expecting them on YouTube, don't worry! The highly acclaimed series from Kyle Jones still lives natively on Eleven Warriors, so if you missed this week's episode, check out his article for the latest video breakdown on what went right and wrong for Ohio State football against Indiana.

What’s Next

  • Women's Basketball: vs. Norfolk State, Thursday, 6:30 p.m. ET on B1G+
  • Men's Basketball: vs. North Carolina, Saturday, 3 p.m. ET on CBS Sports
  • OSU in the CFP: vs. Texas A&M or Miami, Wednesday, December 31st, 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
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