UCLA dismissed athletic director Martin Jarmond on Monday, putting a sharp leadership change at the center of its Big Ten era after the athletic department reported a $21.6 million deficit for the 2025 fiscal year. The move came just days before the Bruins open the 2026 football season at California.

Ira Gowara of The Athletic reiterated the news, first broken by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, that the university made it crystal clear that money, not wins, forced their hand. In an official address to the campus, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk admitted the current setup is no longer sustainable. The university needs a commercial engine that can fund its own expenses rather than burning through central campus reserves.

“UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit, and its current path is not sustainable,” Chancellor Frenk said in his statement. “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.”

While trimming the annual loss down to $21.6 million was technically an improvement, it barely scratched the surface of a much deeper financial hole. Over seven straight years of red ink, UCLA Athletics stacked up a staggering $241.1 million in total losses.

The central university had to step in with massive internal bailouts year after year, effectively pulling cash out of academic programs just to keep athletic operations running.

What makes the budget crisis so wild is that UCLA recently executed a highly publicized move to the Big Ten Conference to chase bigger media payouts. The school pulled in over $61 million in Big Ten media-rights revenue during its first full year in the league.

However, even with all that historic television cash injection, plus an extra around $30-ish million direct cash subsidy from central campus resources, their budget still crashed into the red.

Rising NIL costs strained the department’s budget, eating up much of the new revenue that was coming in.

It doesn’t end there. This firing of Jarmond right now leaves UCLA facing million-dollar financial consequences. Because university leadership extended his contract through June 30, 2029, back in May 2024. So, in a way, the school’s legally on the hook for his contract buyout.

UCLA owes Jarmond approximately $6.5 million on the remainder of his guaranteed deal. This expensive parting gift adds a hefty premium to an already strained university athletics ledger.

However, to lead the rescue mission, UCLA and its Chancellor Julio Frenk announced that former Los Angeles Lakers business mastermind Tim Harris is stepping in immediately as the new CEO and Director of UCLA Athletics.

“Simply put, he loves UCLA and cares deeply about our future,” Frenk said of Harris. “Tim knows what it takes to grow a world-class sports organization and global brand, and he holds longstanding relationships throughout Los Angeles and globally.”

Harris is a proud 1989 UCLA alumnus who actually played goalkeeper for the Bruin men’s soccer team during his college days. In a spectacular win for the university’s bleeding bank account, Harris has agreed to take on the high-pressure restructuring gig strictly on a pro bono basis. This means he will manage the entire multi-sport department entirely for free while a permanent national search plays out.

Harris brings an elite-level corporate sports resume to Westwood. He spent about 35 years running business operations and marketing for the Los Angeles Lakers.

During his tenure in the NBA, he famously masterminded the Lakers’ multi-billion-dollar television deal with Spectrum SportsNet, the Lakers’ historic 20-year broadcast rights contract with Time Warner Cable (now Charter Communications).

The deal was worth a mind-boggling $3 billion, averaging roughly $200 million per year. It stands as the largest regional sports network (RSN) contract ever signed. Obviously, it skyrocketed the franchise’s global valuation.

Because of his deep value to the franchise and status within the inner circle of Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Harris was rewarded with a personal $24 million financial bonus following the high-profile sale of the team at $10 billion to Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter. Walter later sold the team in 2026 and made $2.5 billion in profit.

Now, his unique “CEO” title at UCLA signals a mandate from Chancellor Frenk to aggressively modernize the program through corporate sponsorships, licensing, and other commercial venture opportunities.

The irony behind Jarmond’s firing!

The biggest irony of Jarmond’s firing is that UCLA was actually winning a lot of championships during his time as athletic director. The Bruins won nine NCAA team championships during his six-year tenure, including three NCAA team championships in 2025-26 in women’s basketball, men’s water polo and beach volleyball, tying for the most in the nation.

Despite that, the university leadership made it abundantly clear that securing national trophies doesn’t matter if your financial model is fundamentally broken.

Plus, football’s been terrible under him, and his choice of hiring DeShaun Foster. After Foster went 0-3 last season despite recruiting QB Nico Iamaleava, UCLA fans demanded his removal.

They even went as far as flying banners via airplane with a note that read, “FIRE UCLA AD MARTIN JARMOND.”

Jarmond’s final major act was hiring head coach Bob Chesney away from James Madison in December to replace his past failure. Chesney has succeeded at every stop in his coaching career.

Chesney will make his UCLA debut Saturday against California without the AD who hired him. It remains to be seen how that pans out.