jarmond

One UCLA football legend sat across from the other, lamenting how far their beloved program had fallen.

On one side was Rick Neuheisel, a onetime Rose Bowl most valuable player and Bruins head coach, wondering aloud whether his alma mater had put itself in position to pick a strong successor to the recently dismissed DeShaun Foster.

“Is there confidence in the current athletic director when there’s been swing-and-misses,” Neuheisel asked, “or do you need to go find somebody else?”

On the other side of the CBS Sports studio roundtable was Randy Cross, a former All-America offensive lineman and three-time Super Bowl champion so angry about the state of the Bruins that his voice rose as he spoke.

“UCLA is clueless, they’re rudderless, they’re leaderless and it’s been decades since they had anybody there that had a freaking clue as to, A, what they want to do and, two, how they’re going to do it,” Cross said. “It sounds simple — there isn’t a better school in America to go to than UCLA — but that athletic department is a joke led by the football team.”

Theirs weren’t the only critical voices.

National college football writers and other pundits tweeted about the athletic department’s massive deficit, meager NIL resources and failed leadership. An online petition that called for athletic director Martin Jarmond’s resignation or removal generated more than 750 signatures as of Sunday evening.

Some of the fire has been friendly. Roughly 100 former UCLA football players met with Jarmond via Zoom to vent their frustrations about a variety of topics, including the need to get back to the days when football was a top priority at the school.

As UCLA commences a hiring process that will likely last until at least November, one of its biggest hurdles might be a perception problem. Its athletic department has been labeled as impoverished and directionless, with Jarmond squarely in the crosshairs of most detractors.

UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Many have questioned whether Jarmond should be involved in selecting Foster’s replacement after so badly whiffing on his hiring. A former position coach who had never run an offense or a defense, much less a team, Foster compiled a 5-10 record that included back-to-back losses to Mountain West Conference opponents before his dismissal three games into his second season.

“The puzzle doesn’t fit together,” said one veteran agent who works in the NIL space, speaking on condition of anonymity so that he could share his thoughts on the situation candidly. “It’s like, the bad AD hires the coach and they get rid of the coach but they still have the bad AD.”

UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk affirmed Jarmond’s standing in what amounted to a vote of confidence, saying in a statement provided to The Times last week that the athletic director would “oversee the process of hiring a new head coach who will elevate UCLA football to national prominence.”

In announcing a search committee that would assist him in making that hire, Jarmond said he was convening a group of accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats that would be revealed once finalized.

The agent who spoke with The Times said having a committee of respected names with UCLA ties such as football legend Troy Aikman, sports executive Casey Wasserman and former Golden State Warriors general manager and Washington Commanders consultant Bob Myers could elevate the Bruins’ prospects of finding a top-level coach.

“The more heavyweights involved, definitely more people might come to the table who wouldn’t otherwise come to the table and then they can try to convince them,” the agent said. “But then you have a lot of chefs in the kitchen picking, and they can’t get it wrong this time.”

The candidates will presumably have more questions than how much they would be getting paid. What does UCLA define as football success — eight-win seasons or reaching the College Football Playoff? What resources will they commit? How firm is Jarmond’s footing inside his department? How will the school bolster its NIL program to be competitive with top counterparts around the country?

Discussions about the school’s complex finances could take up a good chunk of any meeting.

The widely circulated figure of UCLA’s athletic department running a combined $219.55-million deficit over the last six fiscal years doesn’t fully reveal the financial situation. That tab has been covered in full by the university, bringing the balance to zero, thanks in part to $30 million in direct institutional support in the most recent fiscal year.

The university’s forgiving stance has been taken, in part, because a significant chunk of athletic department revenue is diverted to several other business units on campus, including the recreation department, parking, housing, food and Associated Students UCLA, which benefits from long-held trademark and licensing agreements.

That hasn’t stopped the Bruins from making significant investments in football, mostly thanks to an infusion of cash from their Big Ten media rights deal. The team spent $2.9 million to install new grass and artificial turf practice fields while also renovating the weight room inside its relatively new practice facility. A locker room renovation is in the works.

This summer, UCLA paid to hold its 18-day training camp in Costa Mesa. The team has also spent untold millions on food, travel, biometrics and mental health services while also upgrading the infrastructure of its football staff, including general manager and assistant general manager positions and expanded coaching, analytics and recruiting departments.

UCLA committed the maximum $20.5 million for revenue sharing with its athletes, earmarking an estimated $15 million or so for football players. The team also poured millions into NIL deals consummated before the House settlement so that players could benefit prior to the NCAA’s clearinghouse, NIL Go, going into effect July 1.

But how sustainable is that kind of spending?

In May, the UCLA Academic Senate’s executive board sent a letter to Frenk and Darnell Hunt, the executive vice chancellor and provost, outlining “profound concern” related to the athletic department deficit at a time of anticipated budget cuts for academic departments.

“We have been told that financial sacrifices are necessary to ensure that there is a UCLA in the future,” the letter stated. “How can austerity of this magnitude be imposed on the core academic mission while athletics spending goes unchecked?”

Fans attend the UCLA season opener against Utah at the Rose Bowl on Aug. 30.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The letter went on to note that Jarmond received a contract extension paying him more than $1.5 million annually despite never operating his department with less than a $20-million annual deficit. It also detailed several ways in which the athletic department’s roughly $80-million deficit for the most recent fiscal year (not counting the $30-million lifeline from the university) could be used to support academics, including covering nearly all in-state tuition for every doctoral student.

“All of these potential uses would directly support the academic mission in austere times,” the letter said. “Yet the money is instead being directed to bail out a non-academic department that consistently demonstrates poor fiscal management.”

The senate ended its letter by requesting, among other things, immediate assurance that campus would no longer subsidize the athletic department in any form, including providing or authorizing loans. What was Frenk’s response?

Megan M. McEvoy, the academic senate chair for the 2025-26 school year who is also a UCLA professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, told The Times that the academic senate did not receive a reply and its concerns are ongoing.

But any pressure to save will undoubtedly be offset by calls to spend.

During a discussion of the coaching openings at UCLA and Virginia Tech on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday, reporter Pete Thamel noted that the Hokies were adding $50 million to their athletic department budget to display their commitment to winning at the highest level.

Host Rece Davis wryly added that of the two schools, Virginia Tech was the one that knew what needed to be done.

The agent who spoke with The Times said that UCLA’s best move might be to hire a coach from a lower-level conference who could bring a good chunk of his roster with him like Curt Cignetti did as part of his transition from James Madison to Indiana. In his first season with the Hoosiers, Cignetti won 11 games and took his team to the College Football Playoff.

“If you bring in a guy from Tulane, where those players don’t make as much [in NIL] as what UCLA has to pay,” the agent said, “you can just get it all done in a one-stop shop, so that’s a very interesting dynamic. I don’t think an A-lister [at a bigger school] can really build it as fast as the B-plus guy because the B-plus guy can bring players from his school right now.”

That’s assuming, of course, that the B-plus guy takes UCLA’s call.

Two years ago, reaching the first major crossroads of his UCLA athletic director career, Martin Jarmond drove the Bruins into a ditch.

He should have fired the unhappy and unsuccessful Chip Kelly at the end of the 2023 regular season. He did not. He instead praised Kelly for building a “strong and phenomenal culture.”

Three months later Kelly fired himself with an escape that seemingly everyone but Jarmond saw coming.

Soon thereafter, upon reaching the second major crossroads of his athletic director career, Jarmond drove the program into an even deeper ditch.

Requiring less than 72 hours to replace Kelly, Jarmond did so by hiring a head coach who was preeminently unqualified to be a head coach, a former running back who had never led a team at any level, a reticent former Bruin who had never even called a play.

It took barely a season for that mistake to be formally acknowledged, and now that DeShaun Foster was fired Sunday after winning just five of 15 games, the real issue becomes obvious.

Martin Jarmond has steered this football program into a steaming wreckage, failing to properly manage the most important asset of any modern-day athletic director, turning the Bruins’ largest and most lucrative national presence into a sputtering embarrassment, and you have to wonder.

Now that he has buried them, is Martin Jarmond the right person to dig them out?

It’s difficult to imagine the budget conscious UCLA administrators would spend about $8 million to fire a guy who just last winter was given a five-year contract extension. Then again, they just spent $6.43 million to can Foster less than two years after they hired him.

But something has to happen. Hire a football general manager and let them pick the new coach while Jarmond moves to the background. Or simply pay Jarmond, let him walk, and start from scratch like you should have done two years ago at the end of the Chip Kelly era.

Whatever happens, considering the huge stakes involved, how can Bruins chancellor Julio Frenk allow Jarmond to hire the next football coach?

Jarmond has whiffed on situations involving the last two coaches and you’re going to let him come to the plate again? Risking a third consecutive strikeout? It’s an outcome so humiliating that baseball even has a name for it, terming three strikeouts in one game as earning that player a “silver sombrero.”

Can UCLA really afford to let their athletic director wear that?

Certainly, Jarmond has done some great things with other sports since arriving at UCLA as a relatively untested and unknown administrator five years ago. Last season, when including the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Bruin teams won more conference championships than any other Big Ten school.

UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond has done well in many areas, but football is not one of them.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A men’s water polo national title. The only school with both baseball and softball teams in the College World Series. Women’s basketball in the Final Four. The list goes on.

Jarmond has done well in many areas. But in today’s collegiate sports environment, a Power Five athletic director basically has one job and one job only.

Don’t fumble football.

Football is the cash cow. Football is the monthly rent. Football drives campus revenue. Football creates national reputation. So many people are ridiculing UCLA football this fall that many have forgotten the Bruins greatness in other sports, and in the name of John Wooden, that’s unacceptable.

Football is just too important to be led by someone who would get embarrassed by consecutive coaches, someone who would allow Chip Kelly to leave before firing him, someone who would then hire DeShaun Foster without qualifications, someone who just doesn’t seem to be in touch with the most vital part of his job.

Jarmond had a chance to take full responsibility for both coaching misfires during a Sunday afternoon conference call with reporters.

He did not.

He basically said that the decision to keep Kelly involved higher authorities and the choice of Foster was due to unusual circumstances.

Regrettably, nowhere in the two explanations were the words, “I just blew it.”

About keeping Kelly when he should have been dumped: “What I’ll remind you is these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. There are many stakeholders and factors that go into where and when and how to make a coaching change. That said, ultimately, I’m the athletic director. I’m the steward of this program, and the buck stops with me. But I want to reiterate: These kinds of decisions at this level are not made by one person, they’re made by the stakeholders and factors and circumstances that surround that.”

Disagree. When it comes to handling a football coach, no stakeholder’s voice should be stronger than that of the athletic director, or you need a new athletic director.

About hurriedly hiring Foster, he said: “I made the best decision with the circumstances and resources that I had to work with… I’m very confident in my ability to hire coaches that win championships … this search is going to be very different than the last one … when it was after football signing day, and we had to make a change and get that done quickly.”

Absolutely, the hiring of Foster was conducted in a tight timeline. But to make such a giant decision and not even take a week? That bordered on athletic director malpractice. And eventually, we all saw the result.

Actually, few saw the result. One of the reasons Foster was fired so quickly was that the Rose Bowl had become an empty shell of more broken Bruin dreams.

OK, so the good news is that UCLA now has an entire season to find a bright young coach — where is the Sean McVay of college football? He has to be out there! — and they will have the first shot at many good candidates.

The bad news is that Jarmond was talking Sunday about assembling a search committee full of a bunch of so-called experts and former Bruins. That never works. Too many voices drown each other out and you end up with a compromise candidate.

The hire needs to be made by a strong athletic director willing to make a bold hire for which they accept full responsibility and hold themselves completely accountable.

More bad news. Until further notice, that athletic director is Martin Jarmond.

The DeShaun Foster era is over after 15 games and just five victories, the former UCLA star running back’s storybook rise to head coach at his alma mater coming to an abrupt, deflating end.

After an 0-3 start that included back-to-back losses to Mountain West Conference teams, Foster was dismissed on Sunday in a move that showed the Bruins will no longer accept their status as the laughingstock of the college football world.

Tim Skipper, the former Fresno State interim coach who was brought in as a special assistant to Foster before this season, will serve as the interim coach for the rest of the season as the school commences a search for a permanent replacement.

UCLA was outscored by a 108-43 margin in its first three losses, leading to trolling tweets from the Big Sky and Pac-12 conferences in addition to widespread ridicule from national media figures who noted that the Bruins had clinched last place in the Mountain West and were the only remaining winless team in the Big Ten.

Athletic director Martin Jarmond said he made the decision to remove Foster after consultation with UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk, acting swiftly because there was no clear path to success in the Big Ten even with an extra week to prepare for the conference opener against Northwestern on Sept. 26.

“I felt with the timing, the bye week,” Jarmond said, “it gave our young men the opportunity to just take a breath, recalibrate and change some things that give them the best chance to finish out the season strong and also as a signal to our fans that this is not what Bruin football is going to be.”

Jarmond accepted responsibility for having hired Foster in February 2024 after a process lasting less than 72 hours and said he regretted putting the rookie coach in a difficult situation going into a new conference after national signing day with just half a year to prepare.

“I think you make the best decisions with the circumstances and the resources that you have to work with,” Jarmond said, referring to the constraints of still having the reduced revenue of Pac-12 membership combined with a condensed timeline.

Foster, who compiled a 5-10 record in a little more than one full season, is owed roughly $6.43 million in buyout money per the terms of his five-year contract, barring a new job that offsets that amount. UCLA said it would pay Foster’s buyout from athletic department-generated funds.

“Serving as the head coach at UCLA, my beloved alma mater, has been the honor of a lifetime,” Foster said in a statement. “While I am deeply disappointed that we were unable to achieve the success that our players, fans, and university deserve, I am grateful for the opportunity to have led this program.”

Starting Monday, the coaching change will open a 30-day transfer window for UCLA players who want to leave for other teams. Since the Bruins have not played four games, departing players will have the option to use a redshirt season but not immediately play for their new team.

The Bruins already appear to have lost three high school recruits after Johnnie Jones, a four-star offensive tackle from Bradenton, Fla.; Anthony Jones, a three-star defensive lineman from Irvine Crean Lutheran High; and Yahya Gaad, a three-star edge rusher from Medina, Tenn., said they were no longer committed to the school.

Foster’s dismissal shifts the spotlight onto Jarmond, who made the unconventional move to hire Foster despite Foster’s having no experience as a coordinator or head coach. Jarmond’s reluctance to fire coach Chip Kelly at the end of the previous season after the Bruins had absorbed embarrassing home losses to Arizona State and California necessitated the need for a quick replacement once Kelly left to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, leading some to blame the athletic director for leaving the football program in such a bind.

“I understand the criticism,” Jarmond said. “What I’ll remind you is these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. There are many stakeholders and factors that go into where and when and how to make a coaching change. That said, ultimately, I’m the athletic director. I’m the steward of this program, and the buck stops with me.”

Foster’s biggest selling points were his status as a legendary UCLA player who had appeared in the Bruins’ last Rose Bowl game in 1999 and his success as a running backs coach at the school under previous head coaches Jim Mora and Kelly.

During a meeting at Jarmond’s home the night before Foster’s hiring, the candidate told his future boss that he would win through a relentless approach.

DeShaun Foster, left, holds up a UCLA jersey with athletic director Martin Jarmond after being introduced as UCLA’s new football coach on Feb. 13, 2024.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

“He said, ‘Listen, Martin, no one’s going to outwork me, no one’s going to outwork this program,’” Jarmond said on the day of Foster’s introductory news conference. “ ‘If we lose a game, it’s going to be because we just weren’t good enough that day. But I guarantee you, I’m going to do everything I can and in my power to make this program successful.’ ”

In announcing the move, UCLA said a comprehensive national search for Foster’s replacement would involve Jarmond and executive senior associate athletics director Erin Adkins, who would be assisted by a committee composed of accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats that would be announced once finalized.

What will the Bruins be seeking in their next coach during a search that’s expected to last several months unless an ideal candidate who is available suddenly materializes?

“It’s got to be someone who exemplars our true Bruin values — respect, integrity and just understands those four letters,” Jarmond said, “but we’ll be looking for a coach quite frankly who sees the vision to take UCLA to the playoffs. We want to win at the highest level.”

Jarmond emphasized that this search was very different than the one that led to Foster’s hiring, noting the increased resources available because of UCLA’s move to the Big Ten and the extended timeline that will presumably lead to a wider pool of attractive candidates.

Jarmond touted Foster’s passion and integrity among the biggest factors that led to his hiring, and it didn’t hurt that the coach was wildly popular among returning players, allowing the Bruins to keep much of their roster intact heading into his debut season.

But Foster’s inexperience showed in his first game, the coach admitting he was nervous and unsure about how to address reporters after his team rallied for a victory over Hawaii. The Bruins started the season 1-5 before winning four of their last six games, momentarily steadying Foster’s standing with donors and fans.

A flurry of offseason moves in which Foster overhauled his coaching staff and scored a number of big recruiting wins, including the acquisition of star Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava from the transfer portal, appeared to show signs of growing on the job. Another promising development came during Big Ten media days in July, when Foster delivered a coherent opening message one year after stumbling his way through widely mocked and memed remarks that included the coach telling reporters, “We’re in L.A.”

But there was also a curious step backward. The coach who initially said he wanted to give his program a family feel, holding a carnival-like spring practice complete with a fire twirler and putting names on the backs of jerseys to help reporters identify players, severely curtailed access to practices and player interviews during training camp.

Foster shrugged off a season-opening 43-10 loss to Utah, saying his team was close to making the plays it needed to be competitive. But a 30-23 setback against Nevada Las Vegas that was followed by a 35-10 blowout against New Mexico showcased a series of worrisome trends.

Foster’s team couldn’t consistently move the ball, get defensive stops or avoid penalties. The Bruins are still seeking their first lead of the 2025 season after having fallen behind 20-0 against Utah, 23-0 against UNLV and 14-0 against New Mexico.

Foster’s pillars of discipline, respect and enthusiasm clearly never took hold given his players’ repeated penalties, lagging preparation for lesser opponents and lack of passion on the sideline.

In his final meeting with reporters before his dismissal, Foster initially blamed his team’s shortcomings on a lack of execution before finally accepting culpability when pressed by a reporter about who was ultimately responsible.

“Everything that happens can fall on me,” said Foster, who turns 46 in January. “I’m the head coach, so it can fall on me.”

Trying to sound upbeat in a monotone voice, Foster said he would use the bye week to make tweaks before the Bruins opened Big Ten play on the road against Northwestern.

“You know, we’ve got two weeks to fix this,” Foster said, “and just looking forward to this opportunity to get it fixed.”

A proud Bruin having met an inglorious ending, those fixes will now be in the hands of someone else.

It’s a chaotic time in college sports, the rules seeming to change daily and some athletes making nearly as much money as their coaches.

At UCLA, the revenue-sharing era officially starts Friday. Athletes will undoubtedly keep refreshing their PayPal accounts to check for that first payment from the pot of $20.5 million that will be distributed in the first year.

Meanwhile, Bruins athletic director Martin Jarmond will be keeping tabs on another bottom line — following up a successful Big Ten debut with something far bigger.

Having tallied 10 conference championships between the Big Ten and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation — more than any other Big Ten school — UCLA could be poised for a breakthrough in its two marquee sports as part of a potentially historic year across the board for its athletic department.

The football team landed transfer Nico Iamaleava from Tennessee and the men’s basketball team brought in Donovan Dent from New Mexico, giving UCLA perhaps its best quarterback-point guard combination since Josh Rosen and Lonzo Ball nearly a decade ago.

“If you look at our athletic program,” Jarmond, who recently completed his fifth year on the job, told The Times, “there’s an energy and buzz that I feel we haven’t had since I’ve been here, and that’s why I’m most positive now.”

At a recent player-run practice on campus, Jarmond watched Iamaleava step up in the pocket and fire a 50-yard pass down the sideline to wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer.

“Nico made a play that I don’t know how many other guys in the country could make,” Jarmond said, “and I was like, ‘whoa.’ Like, that’s pretty cool, you know?”

There’s lots of intrigue to behold in Westwood these days.

Fresh off a Final Four run, the women’s basketball team bolstered itself with the additions of sharpshooter Gianna Kneepkens, a highly coveted transfer from Utah, and freshman Sienna Betts, the younger sister of All-America center Lauren Betts. Oh, and don’t forget that softball slugger Megan Grant will make Pauley Pavilion a second home as part of her bid to become a two-sport standout.

Grant will also once again combine with Jordan Woolery as perhaps the nation’s top-hitting duo in their bid to help the softball team not only make it back to the Women’s College World Series but win the whole thing this time.

The baseball team that just made the College World Series is bringing back shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the probable No. 1 pick in the 2026 Major League Baseball draft, and recently learned that high school pitcher Angel Cervantes will play for the Bruins next season instead of the Pittsburgh Pirates after contract negotiations ended with the recent draftee. Jarmond said he was confident the team could continue to play at Jackie Robinson Stadium in 2026 after a judge issued a stay of legal proceedings that threatened to force the Bruins to go elsewhere.

The men’s water polo team will try to defend its national championship with Ryder Dodd trying to top a season in which the freshman scored a MPSF-record 102 goals.

After finishing as runner-up to national champion Oklahoma, the women’s gymnastics team will welcome a top recruiting class plus the return of two-time Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles.

Jarmond said he appreciates working for a university administration that understands the importance of supporting a strong Olympic sports program, particularly with the 2028 Summer Olympics headed to Los Angeles.

UCLA’s Jordan Chiles competes on the floor exercise during the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships in Fort Worth on April 17.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

“This is the time to continue to invest in our Olympic sports and make sure that we have the excellence that UCLA is known for,” Jarmond said, “and we’re going to uphold that tradition.”

Unlike other schools that have imposed student fees to help offset rising athletic department costs upon the onset of revenue sharing, UCLA officials have not discussed such a move, Jarmond said. The Bruins will instead focus on revenue generation through fundraising, ticket sales, sponsorships and new creative endeavors.

The school plans to partner with an outside firm to help its athletes with content creation to boost their social media following, making them more attractive to brands that could hire them for name, image and likeness deals.

Jarmond said he’s not aware of any NIL deals involving UCLA athletes being rejected by the new College Sports Commission, though there remains a backlog of deals under review. Deals of $600 or more are evaluated by a clearinghouse called NIL Go to ensure they represent fair market value and a legitimate business purpose.

UCLA football coach Deshaun Foster speaks to reporters during Big Ten media days in Las Vegas.

(Louis Grasse / Getty Images)

The role of collectives in offering additional compensation to athletes beyond revenue sharing continues to evolve as part of a shift away from what was previously considered a hard cap on earnings.

“I’m optimistic that it’s going to work out,” Jarmond said of maximizing earnings opportunities for athletes. “I’m optimistic that we will adapt to whatever situation that presents itself based on hard cap, soft cap, whatever cap.”

UCLA is also strengthening the infrastructure of its men’s and women’s basketball teams with the hiring of an assistant general manager for each sport to help with recruiting and navigating the transfer portal.

When it comes to revenue sharing payments, Jarmond said he’s leaving it up to coaches to dictate how much each player makes. Football coach DeShaun Foster said he divvied up his team’s money based on talent, with general manager Khary Darlington and assistant general manager Steven Price assigning values for each player based on previous NFL front office experience dealing with salary structures.

“They loved that we had people explaining to them how you’re getting this money or why you’re not getting this money,” Foster said of his players, “and I think that resonated with them.”

Across all sports, the Bruins are seeking a strong encore after an initial Big Ten season that saw the school place fifth in the Learfield Director’s Cup standings, its best finish since 2018. UCLA athletes posted what Jarmond called a “phenomenal” 3.22 grade-point average through winter quarter (the latest for which figures are available) despite the travel challenges presented by playing in a coast-to-coast conference.

For UCLA athletics to reach the heights that Jarmond wants, its football and men’s basketball teams must win big, and he believes the coaches and influx of talent on each of those teams will give them a chance to do so next season.

Iamaleava’s arrival has generated heightened excitement about a football team that went 5-7 in Foster’s debut season. Jarmond said two recruits he met with on their campus visits mentioned the quarterback as one of the reasons they wanted to come to UCLA.

“You know, we just have more interest and buzz, and it’s cool,” Jarmond said. “I think DeShaun has created that, and Nico and the guys.”

What excites Jarmond most is the potential to be on a victory lap that’s picking up speed.

“This is a great time for UCLA athletics,” Jarmond said, “and I feel like it’s just the beginning.”

Like a quarterback who completed offseason workouts, spring practices and fall training camp, Martin Jarmond had been preparing for this moment for nearly a year.

On Saturday came the big unveiling.

The UCLA athletic director discussed with The Times the plans for his department’s operations in the new college sports world created by the House settlement agreement with the NCAA that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time starting July 1.

The big takeaways: UCLA will distribute $20.5 million in revenue sharing — the maximum allowed under the settlement — while keeping its Olympic sports programs and athletic department staff intact. The school will also preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player.

“This is a pivotal moment in collegiate athletics, and we have to continue to invest in our athletics program to compete at the highest level,” Jarmond said. “That’s why student-athletes come to UCLA, to get the best education and compete at the highest level, and we must invest in our student-athletes to provide that championship-level experience.”

While Jarmond would not divulge the specifics of his revenue-sharing arrangement, it’s expected that UCLA will follow other Power Four conference schools in using U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken’s back-payment formula as a model for current athletes. Under this formula, which will distribute $2.8 billion to athletes who competed from 2016 to 2024 to compensate them for lost name, image and likeness opportunities, roughly 75% of the money will be shared with football players, 15% with men’s basketball players, 5% with women’s basketball players and 5% with all remaining athletes.

“We’ve worked really hard to look at the House settlement, along with other factors,” Jarmond said, “to determine how we were going to split up the revenue share.”

Jarmond told The Times last year that he anticipated a bigger share of revenue going to football and men’s basketball players because they were “responsible for more of the revenue based on the House settlement and the back pay for NIL and all those things.” Payments will rise each year as part of the 10-year settlement agreement.

Even though roster limits could eventually rise to 105 for football and 15 for men’s basketball as part of the settlement, keeping scholarship limits at their current levels — 85 for football, 13 for men’s basketball — will allow UCLA to provide each player on scholarship a bigger share of revenue. As part of the settlement agreement, any money used for scholarships (which have an estimated value of $65,000 per athlete at UCLA) comes out of the revenue sharing pot. Jarmond said his department would reevaluate this arrangement in a year to ensure it was best serving the school’s athletes.

UCLA is also committed to preserving its Olympic sports that have provided the lion’s share of NCAA championships in an athletic department widely regarded as one of the best in the nation. Jarmond said there would be no staffing cuts, but some personnel might be reassigned to better serve the athletic department.

“We are looking at reallocating staff,” Jarmond said, “to positions that better meet our needs in a changing landscape.”

The ability to pay players directly could help UCLA in ways that go beyond compensating its athletes. Revenue sharing arrangements could help narrow the resource gap between the Bruins and other Big Ten Conference schools that had more deep-pocketed NIL collectives engaging in pay-for-play practices.

Now, all new NIL deals exceeding $600 must be approved by NIL Go, a clearinghouse created by the College Sports Commission to analyze deals to ensure they serve a valid business purpose and provide fair market value.

It’s expected that all existing college NIL collectives — including UCLA’s Men of Westwood (which serves men’s basketball), Bruins for Life (football) and Champion of Westwood (women’s basketball, Olympic sports) — will essentially become marketing agencies that try to find endorsement deals for athletes.

Jarmond said UCLA was seeking a third-party partner to help secure so-called true NIL opportunities. Being based in Los Angeles should provide Bruins athletes with a clear advantage in securing marketing deals, Jarmond said.

Other challenges remain. Having traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal NIL legislation, Jarmond said he believed it was necessary to eliminate the imbalance that exists with more than 30 states having their own NIL laws.

While distributing $20.5 million in revenue will be another financial blow to an athletic department that has run $219.5 million in the red over the last six fiscal years — though the entire debt has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero — Jarmond said he has long championed athletes being paid and believes the move is long overdue. As part of the settlement involving back pay to athletes, UCLA’s share of NCAA revenue will be reduced by more than $1 million annually for the next 10 years.

UCLA’s finances could soon improve under a College Football Playoff revenue sharing agreement that is expected to provide Big Ten schools an additional $8 million to $12 million annually beginning in 2026. That’s on top of media rights deals tilted heavily in favor of Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools, giving the Bruins another infusion of much-needed cash.

The athletic department has a new ally in Chancellor Julio Frenk, who signaled his intention to be closely involved with the school’s sports programs during a recent interview with The Times.

“Chancellor Frenk has been extremely supportive of athletics and the impact that it has on our community,” Jarmond said. “He has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way. He hit the ground running during a pivotal time not just for athletics but the university, and he has demonstrated support at a high level and I’m grateful for his leadership at such a pivotal time for athletics.”

While acknowledging that UCLA athletics needed to be more creative with revenue generation as part of what he called “a huge moment” that would forever change the trajectory of college sports, Jarmond said the school’s commitment to sports was unwavering.

“We have to be bold and innovative in this new world,” Jarmond said. “UCLA has always been on the forefront and been a leader and that’s not going to change. We will embrace this new era and we will continue to support our student-athletes at a championship level.”

After seeing a series of bullet-point slides and hearing a slew of buzzwords about UCLA’s athletic department finances, Bob Myers put the crisis facing his alma mater in much simpler terms.

“It’s like water’s coming in the boat and you’re trying to get it out, but how does this thing not sink?” asked Myers, who sandwiched a hugely successful run as the Golden State Warriors’ general manager between his time as a reserve forward on the Bruins’ 1995 national championship basketball team and his appointment as the newest member of the UC board of regents, Tuesday afternoon at the UC regents meeting. “Or how can we help, I suppose?”

Myers was inquiring about an athletic department deficit that has ballooned to $219.5 million after running in the red for six consecutive fiscal years, including a $51.8-million shortfall in the 2024 fiscal year.

To address the increasingly complex issue, new UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk and athletic director Martin Jarmond brought Stephen Agostini, who recently started his second year as the school’s vice chancellor and chief financial officer, to speak to the regents’ special committee on athletics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Agostini outlined many of the UCLA athletic department’s financial challenges, including an anticipated House settlement with the NCAA that will prompt UCLA to make an annual payout of roughly $22 million to its athletes, Olympic sports running about $34 million in the red during the most recent fiscal year, the lack of suite and premium-seat revenue at the Rose Bowl as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the stadium, and licensing and sponsorship agreements with Associated Students UCLA that provides the lion’s share of revenue to the student organization.

“As many of you know, we have a fairly substantial financial challenge ahead of us,” Agostini said. “We are folding in the athletics deficits within that and will endeavor to address that. We are looking at other revenue streams … but it won’t be easy and given the volatility of the space, we’re hoping to stay abreast in an environment that changes almost monthly.”

In addressing Myers’ question, Agostini said the football and men’s basketball teams — with the women’s basketball team likely following suit — were moving toward a professional sports model in which media revenue is shared equally within conferences. USA Today recently estimated that every Big Ten Conference school besides Oregon and Washington, which agreed to take reduced shares for seven years, would receive a $75-million distribution from the conference for the 2025 fiscal year.

Since that figure is the same for almost every Big Ten school, additional income streams are essential.

“That means that what you generate out of your facilities and your other revenue opportunities becomes really critical to your bottom line,” Agostini said. “And as Martin [Jarmond] just mentioned, if we can’t generate additional revenue from tickets or premium seating or the arrangement we have with ASUCLA, it really makes that challenging for us.”

Myers then asked about tangible ways in which the athletic department could mitigate those issues.

Jarmond said the Rose Bowl had agreed to construct a premium seating section in the south end zone that could generate revenue for the school after the 2026 season. The lack of suite or club-level revenue as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the Rose Bowl because it doesn’t own the stadium is depriving the school of roughly $15 million to $25 million a year, according to Jarmond. UCLA is also examining the possibility of Pauley Pavilion renovations that could include premium seating, Jarmond said.

Earlier, Jarmond had discussed ways that his department was doing its best to cut costs. He noted that UCLA was in the bottom quartile of coaching salaries after all nine head coaching hires he had made in his nearly five years on the job were from candidates who were assistant coaches.

“That’s been a strategy that I’ve utilized,” Jarmond said, “to give opportunities to assistant coaches but also to help us competitively with personnel and cost containment.”

The school has also regionalized nonconference schedules as much as possible, with the men’s basketball team pulling out of the CBS Sports Classic to reduce travel and increase scheduling flexibility. Jarmond said UCLA was on track to come in below the $5-million increase it had budgeted for travel expenses during its first year in the Big Ten.

“We’re working our way up toward building more revenue and being able to compete in the Big Ten [and] we’ve got to do more, I will tell you that,” Jarmond said. “We can’t do it on a shoestring budget and be competitive and win at the level that we have won and want to win. It’s something that we’ve been ramping up.”

There was no mention of UCLA’s $30 million in direct campus support to the athletic department during the most recent fiscal year, an unprecedented move to help offset the massive deficit. But in his first public comments about UCLA’s athletic department, Frenk both recognized the school’s rich athletic history and acknowledged the many challenges facing a university that will host the athlete village for the 2028 Olympics.

“There continues to be a lot of uncertainty, the landscape continues to shift, the outcome of recent litigations, which have been adverse to universities, the NIL changes, new models of athlete compensation — all have huge financial implications for us,” Frenk said. “But by joining the Big Ten, we have put UCLA in the strongest possible position to navigate the current volatility and to continue supporting our students in every dimension of their lives.

“So this is a key moment in the history of intercollegiate athletics; I think it’s going to continue to be transformed rapidly in the years to come and we are trying to face this with a strategic vision, a commitment to the fact that these are students first and foremost — our commitment to their education, a commitment to competition with integrity, fair competition and those values will continue to be upheld during this time of transition.”

After UCLA’s nearly hourlong session was finished, officials from UC Santa Cruz offered a presentation on their athletic department, an NCAA Division III outfit with a tiny budget but also a corresponding $2.2-million deficit for the most recent fiscal year that might more closely align with the ideals of college athletics.

“It will be interesting, I think,” UC Santa Cruz chancellor Cynthia Larive said, “for you to see the juxtaposition of UCLA and UC Santa Cruz.”