UCLA AD Martin Jarmond: ‘If you are standing still, then you are falling behind’

Thanks for Reading! Don't miss this deal


Get Standard Digital access to enjoy this article and more

UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond was at the forefront of UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 Conference and pursue a jump to the Big Ten Conference.

While the Bruins won’t compete in the Big Ten until 2024, the sudden announcement last week helped produce more questions about the overall state and direction of college football.

Jarmond is no stranger to the Big Ten, having worked at Michigan State and Ohio State, before leaving to become the athletic director at Boston College in 2017 and then taking on the same role at UCLA in May 2020.

During his tenure at UCLA, Jarmond has helped lead the university’s athletic department through the pandemic and produced a new appeal partnership with the Jordan Brand and Nike.

Below are Jarmond’s comments during an interview with the Southern California News Group:

Q: Did your previous experience working for a university competing in the Big Ten prove to be useful in the process to move UCLA to the Big Ten Conference?

A: Having some familiarity with the Big Ten helped because I spent so much time in the conference at Michigan State and Ohio State. I have a feel for the institutions and the competition and what it’s about, doing things the right way with academics and athletics at a high level. The familiarity helped being in that conference for 15 years and relationships matter in life. When you are fortunate enough to interact with people who are at the top of their profession and with good people it always helps. You just never know.  Relationships matter and those are important, especially when you are assessing an opportunity of this magnitude.

Q: When you took the job at UCLA, was the last thing you expected was to be back in the Big Ten again?

A: In college athletics, it’s very chaotic and it’s a challenging time, but there’s so much change and disruption, so I would tell you over the past year, as an athletic director, you are constantly looking at the landscape and trying to best think about how to position your program for the future. We want to be a program operating from a position of strength because there’s an expectation to compete and win at a high level and do it the right away, and that’s what Bruin tradition and excellence is about. As an athletic director, I’ve been looking at the landscape over the past year and really analyzing where I think it is going and that’s definitely part of the calculation as far as the attractiveness of the Big Ten Conference and its ability to provide the competition and the opportunities for more exposure and doing things that will benefit out student-athletes in this kind of environment.

Q: Are you happy with how things worked out the way that they did and could the outcome have been different, if the news of the move became public any earlier than it did?

A: I think any time you are working on a decision of this magnitude, it has to have a really small and tight circle. That’s just the reality of how these things are done and so I think credit is to UCLA and the Big Ten Conference for really working toward this in an expeditious manner and a quiet manner because you just can’t afford to have this kind of information to be in the public domain and something of this importance. You  just hope that everyone is operating in good faith and working diligently and doing their due diligence to have it work out. I think they voted June 30th, the presidents and chancellors, and it was a unanimous vote. And up until that point, you are just waiting and I was glad that it turned out that way.

Q: How important do you think this move is for the future of UCLA athletics and its sports teams?

A: I’m a firm believer that if you are standing still, then you are falling behind. And although we have had a lot of success in all of our sports, our job is to ensure that we continue to have success or even more as we move forward and to do what we need to have resources to win and compete at a high level to attract the top talent and to develop. You need resources to do that. Our coaching staff and our programs understand that there are things they are going to want to do to help our student-athletes, whether it’s nutrition, mental health and just different things that are going to help them develop holistically and compete. You have to resource that and it’s important to have those resources and to provide that stability with the foundation to continue to win at a high level moving forward. This isn’t a decision for now, this is a decision for the future of UCLA athletics and how best we position our athletics programs to have sustained excellence moving forward in a changing college athletics environment.

Q: Were there any sentiments shared with the Pac-12, such as increased revenue shares, that would’ve kept you guys in the conference?

MJ: I didn’t have any conversations with the Pac-12, again we are going to be in the Pac-12 for the next two years and we are proud members of the Pac-12. We have a long history in the Pac-12 and we will be fully engaged and compete and be great teammates in the Pac-12. This was about the future and where we thought that academically and athletically we fit that made the most sense for our athletes and programs to continue to compete at a high level.

Q: What would you say to the UCLA fan base regarding change to traditions and what has been the norm over several years?

A: I understand change is hard and, in any walk of life, change is usually met with some positive and some negative. That’s life and that’s reality and I understand that. What I would say is: If you support UCLA student-athletes and our athletics programs and you want to see us succeed, compete and win, then you should be supportive of this move because what it does is it’s going to allow us to compete against some of the best institutions in the country and give us a national platform to showcase the skills and talents of our student-athletes and also provide critical resources to help us fund, invest and grow and continue to support our teams to win and compete. That’s what you want is to compete at a high level and continue the trajectory of UCLA athletics and what we have been as leaders in this space. If you want us to lead, to win and continue to win championships, then we need everyone on board because this is where we are going.

Q: All indications are that UCLA will compete at Rose Bowl Stadium next year, but was there any involvement in the process to move to the Big Ten because of some of the existing ties between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten?

A: No (involvement from the Rose Bowl), my primary focus and responsibilities is to our student-athletes and that was our focus and that was the main consideration: How do we best position them, the current student-athletes that will be here, and the ones that we hope to attract to come to UCLA and what is the best for them? That was the factor and primary responsibility I concern myself with.

Q: The main goal is to continue to compete in the Rose Bowl going forward?

A: We are excited to compete in the Rose Bowl this fall, starting Sept. 3 (against Bowling Green). We are excited and have some new elements we are bringing this year much like we did last year. Playing in the Rose Bowl Stadium is iconic and we hope to continue to attract fans and more energy to the stadium and that experience, so we can give our football student-athletes every advantage to win.

View more on Whittier Daily News