UCLA Fires Athletic Director Martin Jarmond After Six Years, $241 Million in Deficits

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk fired athletic director Martin Jarmond on Monday, August 31, ending a six-year run and installing former Los Angeles Lakers business executive Tim Harris in his place, according to a letter Frenk sent to the UCLA community.

The timing is brutal. UCLA opens its football season at California on Saturday under new head coach Bob Chesney, Jarmond's final major hire, and Jarmond won't be there to see it.

The Money Problem

Frenk didn't dance around the reason. "UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit, and its current path is not sustainable," he wrote.

The numbers back him up. UCLA Athletics ran deficits for seven consecutive fiscal years spanning Jarmond's entire tenure, totaling $241.1 million, according to the Daily Bruin. The university had to cover the gap every time.

The deficit did shrink. It hit $51.8 million in one recent cycle before falling to $21.6 million in fiscal year 2025, per the Daily Bruin and USA Today, largely because Big Ten media rights payouts run roughly triple what UCLA collected in the Pac-12. The university still kicked in $30 million in direct institutional support to zero out the remaining shortfall, the Daily Bruin reported.

That's taxpayer-adjacent money, since UCLA is a public university. Whatever revenue the Big Ten move generated, it wasn't enough to stop the school from writing checks to bail out its own sports department year after year.

What Jarmond Actually Did

Credit where it's due. Jarmond, hired from Boston College in 2020, oversaw UCLA's move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, announced in 2022 and effective in 2024, which the New York Times called one of the defining moves of his tenure. He also helped settle UCLA's dispute with Under Armour for $67.5 million after the apparel company tried to terminate its contract, then signed a six-year deal with Nike and Jordan Brand, according to the New York Times.

On the field, UCLA won nine NCAA team championships during Jarmond's tenure across six sports, including three in the 2025-26 academic year alone: men's water polo, women's basketball, and beach volleyball, per the Daily Bruin. The Bruins also finished third in the Directors' Cup standings last year, behind only Texas and Stanford, according to the New York Times.

Frenk himself praised that record even while firing him. "I am grateful to Martin for his extraordinary service to UCLA and for his leadership over the past six years," Frenk wrote.

Where Jarmond struggled was football. He stuck with head coach Chip Kelly through blowout losses to Arizona State and California in 2023 despite fan calls for a change, then lost Kelly to Ohio State's staff two months later after the coaching cycle had already closed, according to USA Today and the LA Times. Jarmond's replacement hire, former UCLA running back DeShaun Foster, lasted just 15 games before getting fired three games into his second season following an 0-3 start. A plane towing a banner calling for Jarmond's removal flew over the Rose Bowl during that stretch, USA Today reported.

Multiple outlets, including USA Today and the Daily Bruin, also reported that UCLA donors criticized Jarmond for moving too slowly to embrace name, image and likeness compensation, a shift that has reshaped how programs recruit and retain athletes nationally.

What Happens Now

Harris, 64, is a UCLA alumnus who played goalkeeper on the men's soccer team and graduated in 1989 with a sociology degree, according to Fox Sports. He spent more than 35 years in Lakers business operations, most recently as president of business operations, before leaving in February 2026, four months after the Buss family sold the franchise to Dodgers owner Mark Walter, Fox Sports reported. He'll hold the title of CEO and director of athletics, working without pay.

USA Today described Harris's role as interim while UCLA conducts a search for a permanent athletic director. Other outlets, including CBS News and the New York Times, reported Harris's appointment without that interim framing, describing his mandate as building "a new strategy to grow revenue through partnerships, licensing and other ventures," in Frenk's words. That gap in how this is being reported leaves open whether Harris is a placeholder or the long-term answer.

Unresolved: how much of Jarmond's remaining contract UCLA will pay out. The LA Times put the figure at $5.9 million remaining on an extension through June 2029. The Daily Bruin put it at $6.5 million. Neither UCLA nor Jarmond has confirmed a final severance number, and Frenk's letter didn't address it directly. For a department already $241 million in the hole, that number matters.