Hey, did you hear the news? UCLA fired Martin Jarmond, a primary architect of UCLA’s departure to the Big-10, which blew up the Pac-12. This, of course, has directly led our current reality, where Cal will be playing in goddamn upstate New York in a week for a conference game.
UCLA left the Pac-12 in part because they needed more money, and their big fat midwest paycheck means that everything is fine in Westwood, right?
Whether it was mismanagement, new expenditures related to paying athletes or the lack of revenue generation — or all three — UCLA athletics under former athletic director Martin Jarmond turned a financial pothole into an ever-expanding money pit. On Monday, six years of massive deficits, soaring well past $200 million, prompted UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk to fire Jarmond and install UCLA men’s soccer alum and former Los Angeles Lakers executive Tim Harris to run the athletics department.
Hey, the move that made college football worse for everybody also isn’t helping UCLA! Who could have possibly foreseen this outcome?
Martin Jarmond and UCLA presumably thought that horning in on the Big 10’s massive TV contract would be the panacea that cures all ills. The problem, of course, is that while the Big-10 makes more money, it also spends more money. UCLA had to spend more money in a badly formulated plan to compete in their new conference, still spent less than most of their conference mates, and has a 6-12 record in Big-10 play to their name after two seasons. To whit:
But UCLA’s deficit numbers during the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years were staggering.
Over those two years, the department spent $73.48 million more than it brought in, which is troubling enough. But its listed income includes $52.5 million in direct university support and student fees, bringing UCLA’s campus contribution to athletics to more than $125 million combined for 2024 and 2025.
So good luck fixing UCLA’s finances, Tim Harris. Want some free guidance? By my estimation, you have three options:
Reduce athletic department spending (by somewhere between 40 to 60 million per year?!?!?) and become a perennial bottom feeder in every Big-10 sport.*
Continue to run a massive fiscal deficit while continuing to spend roughly at the level of your peer institutions, and be competitively middling in the Big-10.
Find major donors other than a guy who was all over the Epstein files.
What has UCLA said they need to do? Per a statement from their chancellor, Julio Frenk, emphasis mine:
Now is the moment to build a model for Athletics that protects the breadth of our program, creates new opportunities for student-athletes and coaches, and supports itself through the revenue it generates.
Now, this statement might be political BS, and in five months UCLA might announce that they’re cutting programs. But if UCLA thinks that they’re going to fix a structural deficit simply by convincing more people to show up to the Rose Bowl to watch UCLA vs. Michigan State . . . well, good luck.
UCLA fans are busy celebrating Martin Jarmond getting fired, and I hardly blame them, because he does in fact suck. But if they think getting rid of the guy that created this mess is by itself a solution, I think they might be disappointed five years from now. UCLA’s problems are deeply structural, and the only solution is cold hard cash.
*Cal has, forcibly because of the collapse of the Pac-12, had to drastically cut back support for non-revenue sports. Thanks, Bruins, and you better make sure those Calimony checks clear, jerks.
What now for UCLA?
So many college football programs define themselves in contrast with their rivals. UCLA has always done so with USC. They cheat, we don’t. They’re rick jerks, we’re the program of the people.
Say what you want about USC, but they know what they are: Villains of college football. When I went to watch Cal play in South Central, I hated the experience with a passion . . . but I was also kinda impressed in a messed up way. USC fans would be brutally dismissive of Cal at the pregame tailgate. As you trudged up the steps to your stratospheric corner seats while the USC band bombarded you with their wall of monotonous noise, wearing you down with brass hit after brass hit, you couldn’t help but give up hope of a win. USC is Darth Vader. You hate him, but you fear him.
UCLA could never be that. Still, UCLA sold their soul, sold out Pac-12 football, and allied themselves with the craven greed monsters at USC just to finish 13th in an 18 team conference. What exactly has UCLA become?
They are USC without the money. They are USC without the football wins. They are USC in denial, USC without any aura, USC with even fewer paying fans.
UCLA is dollar store USC. UCLA is Dark Helmet, attempting to go Ludicrous Speed into the Big-10. It’s not going well.
Cal may very well lose on Saturday to Dark Helmet. Bob Chesney is a more than competent coach, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if his team full of experiences James Madison dudes are prepared to play more coherent football than Tosh Lupoi’s more varied transfer portal additions.
But a win wouldn’t change the reality UCLA has built for itself. My sympathy goes out to every UCLA fan who recognized how awful the Big-10 jump was from the start, and dreams for a return to Pac-12 football. My undying disrespect and scorn goes out to every quisling UCLA fan who bought into what Martin Jarmond fed them, who pretends that UCLA is college sport’s special boy because they happen to sit in the 2nd biggest media market in America and because USC decided to pull their bloated athletic department with them into the Big-10.
Go Bears forever, Death to the ACC
Oregon State fan here. I hate all those greedy bastard schools that killed the PAC 12 in search of more money and fame. I hope they all go broke traveling across the country in search of it.
UCLA's the deadbeat dad trying to get out of child support payments because they spent their entire paycheck on cigarettes and booze.
Those Calimony checks better keep clearing; UCLA's decision to join the Big Ten and blow up the PAC-12 is what cost the entire UC system money. They shouldn't be able to renege on payments now after mismanaging the rest of their new paycheck as well.