It's been three years since the Pac-12 broke apart, but the lingering feelings from the dissolution are still raw. So raw, in fact, that this week an active United States congressman celebrated a California athletic director's firing by calling him "a moron."
On Monday, UCLA fired its athletic director, Martin Jarmond, after more than six years at the Westwood college. Hours later, Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington quoted a post about Jarmond's ouster with some colorful language of his own.
"Good," reads Baumgartner's quote post about Jarmond's firing. "Any individual to participated in the creation of transcontinental athletic conferences that repeatedly send student athletes flying coast to coast to play sports like volleyball on a weeknight is a moron who should be driven out of college athletics and no where near decision making at taxpayer owned public universities," Baumgartner wrote, adding an American flag emoji at the end of the post.
Good. Any individual to participated in the creation of transcontinental athletic conferences that repeatedly send student athletes flying coast to coast to play sports like volleyball on a weeknight is a moron who should be driven out of college athletics and no where near… https://t.co/WSGMCMJWF8
- Congressman Michael Baumgartner (@RepBaumgartner) September 1, 2026Jarmond is widely considered to be the person at UCLA who set the school up to move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten - alongside its crosstown rival, USC - back in the summer of 2022. The move caught the rest of the conference and then-Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff by surprise, and Jarmond was the voice cited in major outlets about the move on the UCLA front.
"College athletics is changing, and UCLA has always led in times of change," Jarmond told ESPN on the day the school announced the move. "For the sake of our student-athletes, and for preserving the legacy of Bruin excellence, we cannot afford to stand still."
It took more than a full year for the Pac-12 to completely collapse, as the efforts to save the conference via a new television rights deal fell apart. Eight of the remaining 10 schools then fled for other conferences - Oregon and Washington joining USC and UCLA in the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah heading to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal finding a life raft with the ACC, awkward fit and all.
That left Oregon State and Washington State all on their own - and clearly, the Pullman-born Baumgartner, a Washington State graduate, has a long memory. Baumgartner has positioned himself as his alma mater's champion in Congress since he took office in 2025, especially as Washington State faces the headwinds of a new college sports landscape.
The Cougars are set to begin play in the new-look Pac-12 this fall, but the reshaping of the conference has dropped it from the "Power" conference ranks. That means less money from television deals for Washington State, less prestige on the national level and fewer chances to make it into postseason play. When you add all of that up, it's easy to see why bitterness can linger toward those deemed responsible for the changes of the past five years.
Still, it's rather eyebrow-raising to watch a sitting congressman actively celebrate someone's firing.
As for Jarmond, not even the move to the Big Ten helped him balance UCLA's athletics budget. School Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote a letter to the UCLA community citing the school's "significant financial deficit" from Jarmond's department as the key factor in the decision to dismiss the athletic director; UCLA had a deficit of more than $240 million during Jarmond's time at the school. Former Lakers executive Tim Harris will step in to replace Jarmond while working pro bono, Frenk's announcement said.
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This article originally published at Congressman celebrates UCLA athletic director's firing, calls him a 'moron'.
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