When I heard Martin Jarmond was pushed out as the athletic director at UCLA on Monday, I thought about the downfall of the Pac-12 Conference.
Also, a little about Bill Walton.
Also, definitely about the window table in the executive lounge on the 18th floor of the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. I found Jarmond sitting by himself there on the morning of football coach DeShaun Foster’s awkward Big Ten media-day freeze in the summer of 2024.
Remember that fiasco?
The AD waved me over to his table when I walked in that morning. We sat and talked for a while. About the unraveling of the Pac-12. About Chip Kelly basically firing himself. About the scramble to hire Foster. And about how Jarmond would have likely hired Jonathan Smith, had he not left Oregon State for Michigan State in such a hurry.
It wasn’t long before our conversation zeroed in on the donor unrest in Westwood, because Jarmond was adrift in the open water and the sharks were circling even back then.