At this time last year, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told the Board of Regents his department was projecting a deficit of nearly $63 million for the 2021 fiscal year, with revenues expected to plummet as the COVID-19 pandemic quashed ticket sales and fan attendance.
Twelve months later, Manuel addressed the Board of Regents once more and gleefully presented new projections for balanced budgets in both the 2022 fiscal year, which ends later this month, and the 2023 fiscal year while offering an encouraging update on the department’s debt, the vast majority of which has been paid off.