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BC's Martin Jarmond Reportedly to Be Named UCLA Athletic Director
May 16, 2020
Boston College athletic director Martin Jarmond is reportedly set to leave BC to take the same role at UCLA.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Jarmond and UCLA are finalizing a six-year contract, which will end his three-year run as the AD at Boston College.
If Jarmond's deal with UCLA becomes official, he will replace Dan Guerrero, who is retiring after 18 years as UCLA's athletic director.
Per Thamel, Boston College made a "strong push" to keep Jarmond over the past couple of days, but UCLA made a quality offer and chose Jarmond over Penn's Grace Calhoun and UNLV's Desiree Reed-Francois.
Thamel noted that Jarmond's fundraising ability likely played a significant role in UCLA hiring him. Jon Wilner of the Mercury News reported in January that the UCLA athletic department has an $18.9 million deficit for the 2019 fiscal year.
UCLA has long been considered a big-time program, especially in men's basketball, but Jarmond has his work cut out for him when it comes to both balancing the budget and making the primary sports teams competitive.
The men's basketball team was a borderline tournament team last season at 19-12, but it is difficult to say if the Bruins would have made it since the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. UCLA failed to reach the tournament the previous season.
UCLA did make the tourney in five of the previous six seasons, but it didn't advance beyond the Sweet 16 in any of those years. The Bruins could be on the right track now, though, with Mick Cronin at the helm as head coach.
Things are far more dire in football, as the hiring of Chip Kelly has not worked out two years in. The Bruins went 3-9 in Kelly's first season and then they barely improved in 2019 with a 4-8 mark.
UCLA reached a bowl game in the six of the previous seven seasons before Kelly took over, but it hasn't won at least 10 games in a season since 2014.
The 2020 season could be telling since Kelly has now had ample time to bring in recruits and mold the team into what he wants it to be.
If the basketball and football teams don't make significant strides in the near future, Jarmond may have to make some difficult decisions.