Stories will continue to pour out on why the UCLA Bruins made the move they did on Monday, firing athletic director Martin Jarmond and eating his $6.5 million buyout to move into the next generation of UCLA athletics.
Things haven’t been working. Especially on the football field, where UCLA has looked like a bottom-feeder in their first two seasons in the Big Ten Conference.
Even if UCLA has stayed competitive on the basketball court, serious changes were needed in the athletics building and on Monday, UCLA finally ripped off the band-aid.
CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello wrote Tuesday on how UCLA was losing donors by holding onto Jarmond.
“UCLA raised $18.5 million in donor contributions in fiscal 2022. Then $15.6 million. Then $13.9 million. Then $13.5 million. Donations worsened for three straight years, even though a move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten in 2024 was supposed to fill the Bruins' treasure chest,” Marcello wrote. “UCLA ranked 14th out of 16 public Big Ten schools in donations. The league median was $34.1 million in 2025, according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. Washington, which joined the conference a year after UCLA and plays in the same time zone, raised $52.9 million.”
UCLA was fighting an uphill battle that was only getting steeper under Jarmond. For the Bruins to return to contention, they need their donors on their side, and the donors had shown several times that they did not believe in Jarmond.
Before the start of the Bob Chesney era on Saturday, UCLA decided to pull the plug on Jarmond, who’s shortcomings was set to make things even more challenging for Chesney as he looks to help the Bruins climb up the Big Ten standings this fall.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA's donor contributions dissipated under AD Martin Jarmond
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