Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leads his team onto the field for the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025. Ohio State won 27-9.

The University of Michigan has been down this road before.

In 2020, it was the university provost. In 2022, it was the university president. In 2025, it’s the head football coach.

All were accused of inappropriate behavior involving other people at the university. And now the university is using a law firm to investigate football coach Sherrone Moore – the same law firm that had helped it investigate university president Mark Schlissel just a few years earlier.

Moore was fired on Dec. 10, when athletic director Warde Manuel said “credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.” Manuel said Moore’s conduct “constitutes a clear violation of university policy.”

The three scandals are connected in various ways and involve some of the highest-ranking and highest-profile positions at one of the most prestigious schools in the Midwest. While it might imply problems with the leadership culture there, it also allegedly shows lines keep getting crossed even after the university responds with action.

How all the Michigan leadership scandals interwine

The university didn’t say which policy Moore allegedly violated, but it appears to be Policy No. 201.97, which was implemented in response to the sexual harassment scandal involving former provost Martin Philbert, the second-highest administrator at the school.

That policy prohibits most supervisor-employee relationships and was put in place in 2021, shortly before Schlissel was fired in early 2022. Michigan fired Schlissel then after receiving information about an alleged sexual affair with a subordinate and determining that interactions with the subordinate “were inconsistent with promoting the dignity and reputation of the university.”

Nearly four years later, Michigan is back at it with Moore.

“This breach of trust by Coach Moore is painful for many in our community, first and foremost, the individuals directly involved in this situation,” interim university President Domenico Grasso said in a statement on Dec. 10. “Yet our swift and decisive action reflects the University’s staunch commitment to a campus culture of respect, integrity and accountability. All of the facts here must be known, so the University’s investigation will continue. I encourage anyone with information about this matter to confidentially contact UMconcerns@jenner.com.”

Michigan engages same law firm as last time

The latter email address belongs to the law firm of Jenner & Block, the same firm that the university engaged in December 2021 to investigate Schlissel. That law firm’s website says it “helps educational institutions navigate large-scale matters that carry significant legal, political, and reputational risk.”

When the University of Michigan Board of Regents fired Schlissel on Jan. 15, 2022, it sent a letter to him noting his conduct was “egregious” in light of how he had committed to improve safety after the scandal involving provost Philbert. An investigation in 2020 had found that Philbert had sexually harassed multiple members of the university community, including university employees and graduate students who worked in his lab.

Schlissel sent a message to the university community about it on Aug. 3, 2020.

“The regents have been stressing with campus leadership the importance of diminishing sexual harassment and misconduct for many years,” Schlissel said in the message.

Michigan enacted policy in July 2021

The university looked into the Philbert case with a different law firm, WilmerHale. That firm recommended establishing a policy that became known as Policy No. 201.97, which forbids most supervisor-employee relationships.

It became effective in July 2021. But Schlissel apparently didn’t heed it, or at least the broader spirit of it. And neither apparently did Moore, according to the university. The question now is what’s next.

“The university's statement (about Moore) is strong in tone, but it stops short of full accountability,” said Evan Nierman, CEO of crisis public-relations firm Red Banyan. “By framing this as the swift removal of a single bad actor, it leaves unanswered how the behavior went undetected and unaddressed until it reached this point. People will still ask those questions.“The risk for them now is assuming the story stops here. If additional facts emerge that suggest warning signs were missed or concerns were raised in the past, the university will be judged on whether it told the whole story when it had the chance.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Connecting the dots with Sherrone Moore and other Michigan scandals

Reporting by Brent Schrotenboer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect