Martin Jarmond - UCLA Director of Athletics

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head. I'm not looking at my own work that I've done. As always, giving me great perspective. It's allowed me to keep my feet on the ground. And it has really put, and reminded me, what's truly important. Damien Miller. That was for Seattle. Just to name a few. Welcome to Sports Business Radio. Now, here's Brian Burger. Well, thanks for joining us on this edition of Sports Business

Radio. Another great guest lined up for you, Martin Jarmont, who is the director of athletics at UCLA. He's going to join me this week. He was hired by the Bruins in 2020. He's one of the youngest athletic directors at a Power 5 conference. He discusses the rich history of UCLA. Did you know that they won 120 national championships, including 11 and basketball? How that hit you?

The history is being taught to the current UCLA athlete to many of them weren't even alive when some of those national championships were being won. UCLA is pending move to the big 10 conference and what that means for their student athletes and the university itself from a financial standpoint. How the university is assisting its student athletes with navigating name, image, and likeness. Plain in the competitive

Los Angeles sports and entertainment market and UCLA's apparel deal with the Jordan Bray. I think UCLA has some of the sharpest uniforms in all of college sports. This conversation with Martin Jarmont is also available to watch over on our YouTube channel at sportsbusinessradio.com. I'm joined by executive producer Brian Griggs. How are you? Yeah, I'm doing good. Man Martin is a wealth of knowledge and UCLA is

such an iconic brand and that university that everybody knows and like you said, they're on the radar with their uniforms. They've always looked good and snazzy and we did a road show there a few years ago with Baron Davis. It's just a cool campus great vibe. Martin just really shed some light on the move to the big 10 and all the stuff going on with UCLA.

So it's pretty fun. Yeah, I mean a lot of people have questions about the logistics of the sports being played. You're in the Pacific time zone. You're going to the Midwest. And in some cases, the Eastern time zone or all the sports can travel or just some of the sports can travel like football and basketball. So he answered a lot of those questions, which I'm sure

our listeners have as well. And then look, whether it's USC or UCLA, they don't want to play at 10 30 at night anymore. They want to play their games in prime time when more people can see them, more eyeballs. That's a big part of this. And that also results in better name image and likeness deals, right? Like more people see you. You're going to get better

NIL deals versus playing at a time where everyone on the East Coast is asleep. I mean, I've been on the East Coast for the last month. It sucks being on the East Coast when it comes to watching sports because the games start so late. I'm a West Coast best coast guy. And you know, it's much better for watching sports. So they're going to play at a

time in the day where more people can watch that I'm going forward basketball football and there are other sports. Well, I think that's been the gripe with Pac 12 schools is those, you know, Pac 12 after dark. They've branded it. But you're right. I mean, it's 130 in the morning. These games are getting over in New York City. And it's just like no one's going to

watch a, you know, Utah versus UCLA game when it's at 10 30 at night, their time starting. It's just like, it makes sense to move them back. And the big 10 has that slot. You know, they get the 90 am, the noon kickoff, the big noon stuff, and all that. So I think instantly they're going to be exposed more to the national audience just because of

that. All right. Morgan Stanley, global sports and entertainment is the official financial sponsor of sports business radio. They work with athletes, entertainers, executives, creators, agents, managers, and the like. Hence their committed support of college students seeking education, exposure, opportunity, and meaningful industry relationships through several college sports business conferences across the country. These include the Illinois sport business conference. Organ Stanley, global sports entertainment is the presenting

sponsor of this year's Illinois sports business conference. A. Conference designed to connect leading sports business professionals with University of Illinois students aspiring to work in the sports industry through various workshops, networking events, and an annual conference, I. B. C. Ames to foster relationships and create road maps for its students to explore potential careers and niches in the sports industry. Morgan Stanley, global sports entertainment will host

a financial education workshop as part of the conference is programming, which will discuss the importance of financial education and the proper mindsets and approaches to help you embark on the right path to financial wellness. The discussion hosted by Morgan Stanley GSE will take place on February 22nd at 6 p.m. Eastern time and the conference officially began Saturday, February 25th. Also this week, Morgan Stanley GSE is

a sponsor of the Duke sports business conference. I want to be part of this sometime. I was just at Duke. I'm a beautiful campus plug. If you miss my conversation with Duke men's basketball GM Rachel Baker, find that in our archives. It's really all about the business of Duke basketball. But that conference is an annual conference built to expose and educate Duke students and the greater

Duke community to unique perspectives and professional career opportunities in the sports business industry through various panels that cover topics such as sports media, social justice, sports analytics, mental health and solidarity. I'm meeting whole of that at 12 votes. Do you have any other questions to ask me for? Morgan Stanley global sports entertainment will host a panel discussion at this year's conference exploring the dynamics of working

with an athlete on their financial game plan. I love that. The Duke sports business conference was founded with the goal of educating and providing students with access to the world of sports business. This year's conference and panel will take place on Friday, February 24th. Pay attention to that. Lastly, Morgan Stanley global sports entertainment will return to the Penn State Sports Business Conference. In March, that's on

the 23rd and 24th as it's presenting sponsor. The Penn State Sports Business Conference is designed to provide students a forum to learn about evolving trends in the business of sports and entertainment and allow for networking between students and successful sports business professionals. The fact that you have a lot of professionals and Penn State alumni. This year's program will feature a conversation hosted by Morgan Stanley global

sports entertainment, exploring financial education, specifically the importance of financial wellness and starting your wealth journey and education process early. So some great stuff from the official financial sponsor of sports business radio Morgan Stanley global sports and entertainment that grids. Yeah, I mean, they are very involved with universities. I love that. They mesh well with us. I'm so excited to have them as part of our sports

business radio because we work well together and we're doing a lot of the same similar things. So it's fun to have them on board. All right, let's look at some headlines before we get to our interview with Martin Jarmand of UCLA. NBA All Star Weekend. Griggs, I just wasn't that impressed by it. You know, I'm old enough to remember when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Michael

Jordan and Kobe Bryant and all the other top names participated in the weekends festivities. And now the level of stars that are coming to participate in the skills challenge and the dunk contest. It's disappointing to say the least. I don't know what they need to do to incentivize the stars to come out. Mac McClellan was awesome in the dunk contest. He saved the dunk contest this

year. He had some great dunks. I mean, you talk about don't judge a book by its cover. Miss Hitman and Bryan Ferguson were when I was working with him. I do not think you really have money right now. He's been working with Barbaray and I was, like, okay, let, I feel what I think I'm going to work. But I think we don't think we're going to

win on. He's on a two week contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. I hope he hooks on. You've got to think he'd be a fan favorite, even if it's just during warm-ups in the lab line. If he's doing some dogs there at the six-year game, like people are going to think that's pretty cool. But I know, you know, you got to think of the roster spot and,

you know, we'll see if it. Look, unless they're getting Zion and John Morant and some of these elite dunkers out there in the future. What are we doing here? Why are we having all-star weekend? Why are we having the game itself? The game was an atrocity. I mean, Mike Malone, the coach of the Nugget, said that was the worst basketball game. He's ever been a part

of. And that's a guy who's been around the NBA for many, many years. So besides the, you know, TV obligations to TMT. And besides the sponsor commitments to the dunk contest and the three-point contest in the game, it's all like, what are we doing? Yeah, I agree. I think there was some positive. I think Mac was must-watch. I think he's still to show obviously the skills

competition was a joke because nobody even knew who these players were. You've never even heard of them. So that was dumb. And then you could tell some of us just weren't even into it either. I was interested in the three-point because Dame Dala, our man Dame, was in on that and he won it, which was awesome. Yeah, he's just money. He's so fun to watch and

his shot about his pull-up from half-fifth. Yeah, that was sweet. Yeah. And he had the game winning three-point. He had the point shot, too, to get to the one past 182 on points. So that was kind of good, too. But yeah, I think you're right. I think it's just the game is worthless. I mean, nobody plays defense. It's just, you know, bomb and allie ups and

shots from all over court. I mean, it's like five minutes of that. Kind of cool. But four quarters of it, like who cares? I think the TMT crew is good. Obviously, we've talked about. We love Chuck and the shack and their banter and all that. That's great. The draft was a nice little twist. I thought it was kind of cool. Ernie, Ernie does a good job

hosting. He's so good on TV. So I think he was great. He's a little too long probably, but kind of fun having them, you know, go back and forth and not knowing who's going to be on the team. So I kind of like that addition, but still not enough to save it. Well, and, you know, now we have potentially hurt feelings of stars who didn't get

picked first and may have been picked last. I mean, my gosh. Get over that. Like, come on. You're in the All-Star game. You're one of the elite players. Like, if you're picked last, is it the end of the world? No. I mean, take some incentive from that and go out. I mean, I've gotten, kick everyone's rear. Jason Tatum had 55 points. He was the MVP. It

was kind of cool seeing Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum go at each other. They were on opposite teams. And you never see that because their teammates on the Celtics. So that was kind of fun. But I don't know. It's just gone downhill. And I love Adam Silver and I love the NBA, but I just don't have incentive to watch this. And I really don't have incentive

to go to it anymore. Frankly, the tax summit on Friday is probably the thing of the weekend that I would want to see the most. And the tech where Adam Silver put a modra shot in the game, like he took his picture. And then a modra shot is like in the game. Virtually is really cool. If you haven't seen it, follow us on Twitter at SB

radio. I retweeted that it's it's pretty cool. But other than the tax summit, you know, and some people I go into the parties and I understand it's networking and relationship building and the shoe companies are having parties. And you know, all that stuff. But the other problem is a lot of people are exhausted from Super Bowl weekend just last weekend, right? And you've got Daytona 500

on the same weekend. That was won by Ricky Stenthouse, Jr. There's just a lot going on. So I don't know if it's the best time of the year anymore for this either when a lot of the national media have been covering Super Bowl. And they're like, well, we're not going to go cover NBA all-star game very next weekend. Well, we're not going to give. You know,

other than the partners of the NBA, they're just not going to give a lot of attention to it. And finally, like I said, I don't want to be got off my long guy. But I'm old enough to remember when the all-star game was really an incredible weekend. And I just think if you can't get the mega stars, the superstars of the league, to rally around it

and participate in some of these things, it's, it's keeping it. And I don't think people hold it in the same level of esteem. That they did years ago. Well, look, I mean, you talk about the fans voting these guys in. Well, I saw a poll too. Somebody put up a poll about who they want the dunk contest. And it was John Randzion, all that. It had

over a billion likes and shares in about 20 minutes of fume. I mean, it's like, that's what people want to see. They want to see the stars that in these games are dunking like John Zion and, you know, whoever it is. And it's just like, that's what we need to change it. Cause I'm with you too. I was there with, you know, I was watching when

Jordan and Dominique and the whole crew is doing the show. And it's just like, it's must watch TV. Kobe, everybody is this. That's what we need to get. How about this? You know, people always say, Hey, burger. Why don't you offer a solution if you're so smart. Here's my solution. There are companies that just spent $7 million on a 30 second ad just for the air

time for a super bowl spot. They probably spent another five on the production. So now we're at, let's say 10 to 12 million dollars. How about one of these companies puts up $10 million. They're gonna take all for the dunk contest. I think Zion, jaw and others for 10 mil. Yeah. They're probably gonna show up for that thing. So don't do the Super Bowl ad. Sorry

NFL. Don't you think you're gonna get a lot more exposure and run out of hosting that then doing a Super Bowl spot that, you know, it's 30 seconds. I like that idea. I mean, money, money's king for anybody, even the big stars. I mean, 10 million. They'll take that. You get a hundred million dollars. 100 and K 106 K. Like you said, for a Mac to

win the dunk contest, that's, you know, pennies for these big stars. So I like 10 million. I like that number. All right. Martin Jarmand, the director of athletics at UCLA. Like we said, lots going on with UCLA on and off the court and the field. We will talk to him coming up next. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back. Five G is here.

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Our thanks to Boingo for their continued support of sports business radio. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. My guest is Martin Jarman. He is the director of athletics at UCLA. He was hired by the Bruins in 2020. Formerly, he was the AD at Boston College becoming the youngest AD for a power five school at the age of 37. Martin, thanks so much for

joining us. I'm going to be on sports business radio. How are you? I'm good, Brian. How you doing, brother? Good. I know we follow each other on Twitter. We kind of connected that way. I went to loyal La Mare Mount in Los Angeles. I was there with young gathers and bow Kimball were there. Left handed free throw. I've handed free throw. But I've always been a

UCLA admirer and been to many a sporting event at UCLA and, you know, rich history there at UCLA. I'm glad to have you on. No, I'm excited to be on with you and I followed your work and you've done a tremendous job. And thanks for thinking of us. And yes, rich history indeed. Absolutely. So let's start with your personal path. You were a student athlete. I

was telling you off air before we started. I just went to Wilmington, North Carolina for the first time. You start on the basketball team. You and see Wilmington. How has being a student athlete helped you in your role as athlete? Oh, it's helped tremendously. You know, the number one thing that you have to do is you've got to have a why. You know, what's your why?

What's your connection? What's your purpose? Because I talk about energy. I'm an energy guy enthusiasm and to have the passion that you need to be. Great. I want to be great. Right. You got to have a level of energy and enthusiasm about what you're doing. And at USC Wilmington, I was a student athlete and I had a great experience. You know, there were so many people.

People that poured into me. And I didn't have a great experience because it all went the way that I wanted it to. You know, I wanted more play and time. I wanted more shots. Right. I wanted different things. My career to go a different way. But the reality is this life. And you learned to persevere and to see it through and to have grit. And you

formed bonds with your teammates and your coaches and administration. And so that was a great place for me to learn and grow and develop. And I had such a great experience that I wanted to give that that experience. I wanted to give back. And so that's why I pursued this college athletics path. And, you know, that has been good so far. So Wilmington, North Carolina. I

think most of our listeners may now, home of Michael Jordan. The real that was the real end day. And the Jordan brand is your partner for UCLA. That seemingly has worked out terrific. I got to say I'm not saying this because you're on. I think that's what I think your uniforms are the sharpest in college athletics. I love the colors. I love the fact that you're

working with Jordan Brand. Now I know a lot of those folks from being up in Oregon and campus is it far away. But how has that all come together for you? It's been a beautiful partnership. And the relationship is growing. You know, we joined with with Jordan brand and Nike, specifically at a time of challenge. I mean, it was enough. The heat of the pandemic. And

we were coming up. We were coming out of a situation where it didn't work out when our previous apparel partner. And so we were in a spot. And, you know, when you think about Jordan brand, you think about the excellence. And we talk about elite. You know, elite is a word that I use a lot. And it's, and it's something I think about what you see

a late. And it stands for energy, leadership, integrity, toughness, excellence. That's elite. It's a mindset. It's not wins and losses. It's every day. Bringing that mindset, giving you everything I got. And that's what Jordan Brand, that aligned with us and who we are. We want to be a part with the best. And I love Jordan brand from the standpoint they're creative. They're innovative. They take risks.

And, and a lot of young people love Jordan brand. You know, you got to have a level of of swagger and technology and innovation, right? Because we're in a business of helping young people grow and develop. And you're in and there's two days we do. You recruit talent and you develop talent. That's what we do. And Jordan brand and Nike allow us to outfit our student

athletes with the best quality gear in the country in the world. As a world re now company. And it's one that that really invest in the things that matter to students. You know, you look at the companies during the social unrest of that summer of 2020. Jordan brand stepped up in a big way. And MJ was behind that. But a lot of people at Nike were

behind that also. And that's what you want because that's who we are. At the core, we serve our students and our community. And that's what being abroad is about. Yeah. When I think about UCLA, I think about, is it a hundred and nineteen national championships? Is it more than 20? What does, okay, I'm innocent. One. We won women's soccer in December. Okay. So 120 national championships.

There are not in the country. Yeah. I mean, that's incredible. So I think of the rich history. And heritage. How much do you instill that history and heritage into today's athlete that may come and, you know, didn't know John Wooden didn't know Lou Alcindor didn't know some of the giants that have walked on that campus. Oh, it's it's ingrained in our athletic program from from the

moment you step foot on campus. You'll see a 42. We have that number retired throughout campus. And you'll see symbols in the ground that say 42, for example, you talk about Jackie Robinson, a four four letters sport athlete here at UCLA coach Wooden, you know, it's not just a statue. That's that's great right in front of Paulie Pavilion. But we have the wooden academy that all

of our student athletes go through the wooden academy where they learn leadership values, the pyramid of success, right. Competitive greatness. We use a lot of the things. From the pyramid and our strategic planning and our everyday, how we help our student athletes learn about the history of UCLA, but also what what is on them to uphold the tradition of excellence. You know, we stand on the

shoulders of those that came before us. And you said it yourself 120 national championships. Second most in the country. There's a lot of excellence that that was put into to getting that 120. And our job is to make sure that our student athletes and our staff and our coaches understand and embrace that. And how do we take that to the next level to continue on that

tradition. So 50 years, 100 years from now, they're talking about not 120, but it's 160. But more importantly than the championships, it's the lives that have been impacted in the leadership that's been developed to where you go out and you're a leader and you serve your community to right way. That's what's most important to us. And that's what those grace, the Arthur Ashes, the Jackie Jordan

curses, the many Myers-Driesdales, the Kareem Abdul-Jabbarz, you know, this goes on and on, a great brilliance that transcend this sport. It's not just their big and sport. They're big in the world for all kinds of causes that were important to them. And it has started here in Westwood. Yeah, I love it. I had the pleasure of meeting John Wooden before he passed. I went to the

Wooden Awards in 1990 when Hank Gathers and Bo Kimball who went to Loyal and Mariam Out where I went were nominated. I was nominated for Wooden Awards and just what a gentleman. And I mean, you want to talk about a legend. Like a lot of people throw the word legend around. John Wooden is a true legend. Let me tell you a quick antidote story about when

I first started here. So I started here in 2020, like you mentioned. It was all Zoom. I did to meet. I only met out of our 275 staff. I met probably 30 people my whole first year because we were out. Wow. So when I started, I was, I was remote. I was in Boston and I did a Zoom with student athletes. My very first day on

the job, even though I was living in Boston. And I asked them. It was freshman as sophomores. It was like a younger cohort. It was about 80 people in the Zoom, 80 students from all the restaurants. And I asked them. I said, tell me, one of the top two or three reasons you chose UCLA. And again, this is me as a new athletic director, new person

trying to understand what is it about UCLA that made it attractive for young people to choose UCLA. Because you're talking about elite student athletes that could have gone almost anywhere in the country. And, you know, the things that I think that I'm going to hear the top three are playing time. L.A. and the environment. And the top two things I heard was the academic degree, the

world class university, number one public rated. You know, university in the country. I heard the academic profile of UCLA. But like second or third, it was the legacy of coach John Wooden and the pyramid and what UCLA stands for. Wow. And I'm talking about freshman rowers, sophomores on the swim and dive team talking about coach Wooden. And I'm thinking, you've got to be 18 or 19

years old. How do you know about coach Wooden? I asked them. And some of them, it was their parents. Some of them, that's just just what they've been doing. And they know about UCLA. And so, you know, it makes sense to make sure we keep that tradition and that legacy alive because that's who we are. But it also, it helps from recruiting. And what is attractive

to people wanting to be a part of UCLA is part of being a Bruin is is learning that, respecting that, and embracing that. So, so that was just an eye opening for me that you have freshman and sophomores talking about the importance of coach Wooden and his values. Teachings in a pyramid and what that means to them. It was it was incredible. That is incredible. And

it shows they did their homework on UCLA and they studied their their history. Hey, Ted Lasso uses pyramid is successful. And it's all offense. Yeah. I know. I feel like favorite shows. So I love the fact that they all impacted by it. I rather brought when I was in a cubicle of Michigan State back when I was 23 years old. I had a friend out of

the pyramid in my in my cubicle wall. I had that up for probably two years. Yeah. And and and I just love what it represented. You know, I literally had it up and you, you know, I'm a kid from favor of North Carolina. I never I never thought I'd be in LA and and at UCLA. But but you see some things over your past and it

makes sense. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back after this. There's nothing common about you. Now your talent, your drive, your achievements or even your challenges. You need distinctive financial strategies that match your lifestyle and career trajectory. Morgan Stanley Global Sports Entertainment was created to address your specific needs at every stage of your career and deliver the financial education and strategies you need

to help advance your game plan. They speak the language. They know your business. Morgan Stanley will work with you to achieve your goals. I've trusted Morgan Stanley with my personal wealth management for almost 20 years. Visit Morgan Stanley at Morgan Stanley.com. Backslash GSE. That's Morgan Stanley.com. Backslash GSE. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. All right. Let's talk about the move to the big

10 conference. Because I've got some questions about this. And this is one of the big reasons I wanted to have you on just logistics and and literally I do not understand this. So I'm hoping you can explain it to me into our audience. Do I get this question all the time? Are all of the students out there? I think there's a lot of people that don't

understand how it's all going to work. And obviously the big 10 schools would be traveling to Los Angeles as well. Has that even been decided yet? Oh yes, absolutely. Our whole athletic program is transitioning to the big 10 conference starting August 2nd, 2024. And that's five minutes. We're getting invited in 37 days from now, but not that I'm counting. But, but, but we're preparing for that

because we want to make sure that we put our student athletes in position to be successful from day one going into the big 10 conference. So we're doing a lot of work now as far as getting data points and understanding. Everything about the big 10 schools and their athletic profiles and what they invested in what we're strong in and what we may be have some deficiencies

in that we may need to address prior to start in the big 10 conference. But all of our teams are going that are some that are not sponsored in the big 10 that will not go. You know, for example, our men's and women's water polo teams, they're in the MPSF. They're not in the packs with water, big 10. So so they won't be going to the

big 10. You know, we have beach volleyball that is not sponsored by the big 10. So some of our teams, you know, will not be going because that sport is not sponsored in the big 10. But all the other ones that are that is the plan. And so we have some plans and contingencies for travel. You know, a lot of that is is to be determined.

But we've gotten the surest is from the big 10 conference and those members in the big 10 that they're going to work with us and USC as far as flexibility, looking at different scheduling models. For example, the big 10 currently doesn't do travel partners, whereas the car conference where it does do travel partners. So, you know, you may play the Oregon schools on a on a

Thursday Saturday. That kind of thing. You may see some of those kind of things emerge in the big 10 as a as a response to the addition of USC and UCLA. Multi team events where you might have an event or one place. But instead of just two teams playing, it might be four. It might be six. You know, those kind of things. And those things will

work themselves out. But it's all in the best interest to try to make it more efficient for our student athletes to travel and compete. But but we're excited about it. And it's going to be it's going to be great. Elite athletes want to compete when they have the most number of eyeballs on them. The most number of viewers, the big 10 conference signed a great media

rights deal last year. And you're going to be playing at times that aren't 10 30 PM on the East Coast. So more people are going to be able to walk these athletes perform. Has that helped with recruiting. And I would imagine that. Athletes themselves are really liking this move because while you may have to travel a little bit further, you're going to be playing the biggest

teams on the biggest stage at a time when more people can watch you. Right. And you get the nail on the head. I mean, you know, we we serve at the pleasure of our student athletes. That's the group that we that that I can serve myself. We're not the people on Twitter and social media and adults that live other parts of the country that that chime

in about about what this move to the big 10. I focus on our student athletes. I've talked to over 300 of our student athletes and a majority, a large majority of them are are are pumped up about this because you just said they've walked to play against the best. First of all, they they they are elite competitors. They want to play against the best. They measure

themselves up against the best. They want to have a elite education. That's why you come to UCLA. And they want exposure. You know, this college athletics has changed so much in the last few years. And not just at I.L., but just exposure for recognition and what that means for you and your future. You know, in football, we this past year, we had five games that were

either 730 or later Pacific Coast time. So I know you have a spend much time with these coast. I have when you're playing at 1030 at night on East Coast, you're not watching. You're not, you know, you're just not. It's a challenge to do that. And so now we're talking about windows where student athletes will be seen. Three X four X the amount of eyeballs that

that usually see them. So now people will know who they are. Their stories. Their talents and skills are going to be on a national stage being able to be showcased. It's going to be incredible. For them and their growth and development. And also for UCLA athletics. Because that's something that that in my mind is a really big piece of this is how do we best expose

our student athletes to let them showcase their talents and skills to put them on that national. And a major conference in a major way. And that's what this move to the big test is going to do. And I would think with the more exposure, it's going to be a little easier to get some name imaging like the steals, right? If you have more people watching you

and you're in that prime part of the day versus late at night. And, you know, we know that this generation of student athlete. And I.L. deals is part of their consideration when they're choosing a school. And, you know, they want to be able to do that. And I want to make some money off of their name imaging likeness. So what are you hearing from your student

athletes about N.I.L. just navigating that whole space and how this move to the big 10 may be helping them? Well, it's a game changer. And let me say I love it. You know N.I.L. is something that that should have happened a long time ago. And by large 90 eight percent of the of the things that you hear about N.I.L. as far as empathic student athletes is

a positive. You know, you always hear stories. And 2 percent anytime something is new, you can't believe everything you hear for I.V.L. You know, it's just a lot of conjecture and rumors about things. But before the majority of our student athletes N.I.L. is a game changer because it allows you to learn in a college atmosphere and environment, your brand negotiating skills as far as contract accountability

and responsibility for your brand, your image. Those are all things that, you know, we want to help teach and educate our student athletes about. So the ones that I've talked to, they are really appreciative that they have this opportunity while they're in school to not only just get some more money in their pocket, but also learn about business, the business of them and their skill and

their talent. And that's no different than extraordinary musician on campus can do that. You know, now they can be and do some of the things that other students on campus can do. So it's great from that perspective. But also too, you want to give them the exposure and the opportunities to really help them figure it out. And being in a national conference where you're going to

span coast to coast, that's huge. And I look at N.I.L. as two things that you got to do. One, on York with your role in athletic program, you've got to make sure you do everything you can within the rules to help your student athletes have success in N.I.L. space. That's what I'm going to do. So I, we created program at Westwood Exchange. You let companies and

businesses and alums come on there, do an athlete's on there, it connects them directly. So they get due deals directly with each other. We wanted first schools in the country to do to have an exchange. And then educate and we partner with the law school because it's contracts. A lot of student athletes told me Martin, I get most of my deal offers in my DMs on

Instagram, we're a company that I've never heard of once the partner with me. Now we have a partnership with the law school on campus to where they have three L students and faculty have a clinic where they can show them their fall and show them these deals that they're getting these offers. And they can talk through it with someone a UCLA student and a faculty person

in the law school to help them navigate through that. You know, that's that's collaborative. I mean, that's a win win for everybody. And so you got to do everything you can at the university level. And that's what we're doing. And they were in IEL, you got to also look at the external landscape. You got to know what's going on. And you've got to work with collectives

and people again following rules, but you got to do what you can to really help your student athletes. Again, better themselves in that situation. And so that's what we're trying to do. A few weeks ago, I was at Duke University. And I was told that 12 of the 13 scholarship players on the basketball team now have agents. Wow. I've seen that a lot of your elite

be able to flow. They focus on their craft and their studies and what they're really good at. They want somebody to come in and help manage that. And that's okay. You know, that's that's something that they can do. And we support them how we best how best we can. If that's an option. But again, that's not for the majority. I would say over 90, 90 plus

percent don't have an age. Right. And that's what as an athlete director, I have to think about them as far as what services can we provide partner with the law school, partnering with the Anderson School of Management from a business perspective, looking at opportunities. And then you have to evaluate it. What's your, what is the worth of this to your brand? What is it going to

mean five years from now? If you do this deal to what you're doing? You know, we got to make sure we help a majority of our student athletes. But I can tell you right now. Over half of our student athletes have NIL deals. And we have 700 student athletes. So that thing about that NIL just came in less than two years. Yeah. And half of our

student athlete population have some form of NIL deal. Whether it's cash, whether it's pre product. Those kind of things, they're half of them have it. And that number is only going to go up. So it's fascinating to watch. But it's exciting too. Because this, this is, this is incredible learning opportunity for our young people. You're listening to sports business radio. We'll be right back after this.

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present in the state where underdog fantasy operates terms apply concerned with your play. Call 1 800 522 4700 or visit www dot NCP gambling dot org. Now back to sports business radio with Brian burger. You mentioned the Anderson school. A few minutes ago. I'm a big fan. The matter of fact. A few years ago. I did a live show from UCLA and my guest was Baron

Davis. And it was so energized. I mean, you were talking about a guy who's got his hands and everything. And in turns everywhere. Is he told us during that conversation. But, you know, really smart guy. And it was great being in front of some of your business students. And you could just see how sharp they are. And, you know, I think what you're doing in the

NIL space is impressive. And it's so interesting. It's great to educate them. So, you know, if they do go to that next level, they understand how it all works. Even if they don't, they still understand how it all works. Absolutely. I mean, you know, the. I think anytime you have a level of expertise and excellence on on campus or where you are, you got to tap

into. Yeah. I just had lunch today with with two of the guys from Anderson faculty that are in data analytics. And we talked about what are some of the things. What are some of the questions that as we look at college athletics and how it's changing, where it's going, what are the questions that we're kind of data do we have to where we can maybe start

up a partnership. And that's the beauty of being on a college campus. That's the beauty of collaborating with partners is is. There's it can be a one plus one equals three. And that's what we're trying to do with what there's two athletes in this space. All right. The landscape of college athletics is. It's like a musical chairs and you don't want to be left without a

chair. Where is this all going? Because you just wonder, are we going to end up eventually with just like the superpowers and a couple of conferences or, you know, is it going to remain somewhat like it is now. You're an athletic director of major school. Where do you think this is all going to end up? Brian, there's one thing that I can give you. I'm going

to share it to you about where this is going to end up. It's going to be different. Yep. It's going to be different. And you have to be flexible, adaptable, and be able to to see, you know, where is going and adjust on the fly. My focus, our focus is putting our student athletes in position to be successful and putting this program in a position of

string. And you've got to have a foundation through when it's chaos and change. You got to have a foundation, you got to understand who you are, you got to, you got to double down on that. But also too, you've got to cast your net to the future and what it looks like and how best to adapt. So I know that it's going to look different. That

is a fact. What exactly is it going to look like? I don't know. And if you know, Brian or anybody else, they need to go play the lot of right now. I'm sure it's growing. But, but what I do know is if it's going to be different. Whether it's legislator, legislator, politically, model, all of those things are on the table. You've got to be flexible. And

you've, you've got to make sure that, that you make decisions and the best that you're supposed to support the people you serve, the students. And, and you've got to be able to adjust because right now, what I think is going to change. But the question is, how do you adapt? And that's one of the things that I try to try to pride ourselves in is thinking

about, hey, all right. All the things we have done, all the things we have gone through, we're going to go through more. You know, you've got to have a level of grit and see it through. You've got to have a level of, of, of strength to be able to just anticipate and understand and not change, not hold on to, to, to the past. Change is inevitable.

And you've got to either be at a camp that adapts to it or dies for it. We're going to adapt to it. And we're going to evolve and continue to evolve. You see, why I thought you were really smart, higher. I'm not just saying that because you're on it. You, you're young and you speak the language of today's student athlete. You were, it's got more praise

popping in over. Like I, I mean, it's him. You're, you're still close enough in age to today's student athlete. You understand the language they speak. And then you're innovative. And you're not afraid to change. There's a lot of the old funny that is that they want things to remain the same. They don't want to change their traditional. And that's just not the way the world works

anymore. Whether it's in sports or business or technology or outer space or anything. It's a different world. So if you're going to stick to your convictions and say, Nope, I'm, I'm not going to adapt. Then like you said, you're going to die. It's adapter die. And I think you are the perfect person for this job right now at UCLA because you understand. And change and you

speak the language of the student athletes. Right. You got to be a student of the game. The game of business, game of life. You know, Steve Jobs. Amazing. His book. You know, you talk about what the iPod sales were. And then if you come with the iPhone, I was in a cannibalized that. You know, not everybody's built like that. But, but he was able to see

Apple was able to see and modernize and adapt. And it looked like cannibalized. But really it was a bet on their future growth. Just this, you know, you got to learn from that. Just this past year, we started a program where, you know, you pay 1499. We call it a golden pass. The, the din pass is our student at our student pass, the din pass, like

a, you know, the din. We call this golden pass. But it's for our lungs that are within 10 years out. And you can pay 1499 a month. And you can come to whatever games you want to. You don't have to have a commitment of a season ticket. And, and part of the reason we did that, even though that's going to cancel lives our season ticket sales.

Right. You know, you might have students that go 10 to 15 years before they buy a season ticket. Because they don't have to necessarily. But you got to understand that, that demographic. Everybody has Netflix. Everybody has Hulu. Everybody has, you know, if you, if you start to have a family, you're going to have Disney plus, you're used to paying for those type of services. And, and

on demand format. So that's what we did with our, you know, ticket sales this year. And so you've got to learn. I mean, you're not, you're not, you're not going to reinvent the wheel, but you got to be willing to take risk. Take chances, be bold, adapt. And have that elite mindset every day. To where you got to do some bays and some will work out

some won't. That's okay. We don't, we're going to keep trying and keep pushing. Just a couple more questions for you. You're in loss. And, I'm a journalist like I said, I went to loyal and marry him out. I'm, you know, I understand the LA market, but it's very competitive. I mean, you've got, you have the across town. You've got the Lakers and the Dodgers and the

Rams and the Chargers. And how do you get your piece of the pie in that competitive market where so many other options exist for sports entertainment? You got to control what you can control. You know, first we can control our product. We got to make sure that we support our coaches. And our student athletes to where we put a successful program out there to where fans

will be interested in coming. You know, you can't look at the show. You got to look internal first. That's the first thing. So, so what can we do to make sugar that we're putting a product on the field of competition or play that people want to come and enjoy? The second thing is we got to focus on the people we got. You know, we have a

natural base of UCLA where there's alumni, fans come to campus. We got to experience that we got to make sure that we cater to those people because we got to keep who we have to have a vested interest. And then I think after that, you really have to look for the youth. You know, I'm a big proponent of energy. I think you need to have energy

in your venues. And energy starts with you. Energy starts with students. That's why I think it's really important to focus on the students. And I try to connect with the social media and different ways with students because that's what a juice is. That's where the energy starts. It's a little bit more. It's a lot easier when students stand up and yell for a deepest of stop

than all the other fans around them start standing up. You know, you watch that. That energy, that phenomenon starts with young people. And so you've got to understand and try to make sure that we are enticing to compete with the phone, to compete with the couch, to compete with the fridge. And those are things that not even those teams that you just mentioned. I don't focus

on the other entities that are pro sports as much. I focus on us and I focus on the things that I really feel we're competing against. I don't feel we're competing against the Lakers. I feel we're competing with the 405 and LA traffic. And how do we shrink then? How do we look at game times? How do we look at things logistically to make it easier

for our fans to consume our product? Yeah. I could ask you a million more questions, but we'll end on this. Mental health. Has become such a big topic on college campuses and with our young people. What is UCLA doing to address some mental health of student athletes, whether they come in and they're like burned out because they had to work so hard to earn that scholarship.

Or they're just struggling with, you know, being a young person in today's world on campus. We're doing a couple of things, Brian. I mean, you hit it. The mental health is so important, especially going through a pandemic. You know, that was hard on a lot of people. You're still filling the impacts of our student athletes competing with no fans and having that isolation and not being

together. You're still seeing it, filling it. So you got to do a couple of things with one thing we've done. First, we added more mental health support staff. We spent over half a million dollars this fall to add extra full time staff members. So we could cut down the wait times of our student athletes that were waiting to have appointments. We've invested more in tele therapy

as well. We've also done some spots at all of our competitions that have video boards about mental health. You know, we called it a mindful mint. And then I'm learning the first one of the speaks on their about mental health. When I go out and speak, I always talk about my therapist. I have a therapist I've had one for years. We try to de-stamify that. I

think it's important. Everybody to talk to somebody that doesn't have a bested interest in your success or what you do. And that's just a couple of things that we try to make sure to normalize, talking, and taking care of you. That's it. You know, you got to take care of you. My right, game right. You can't compete and do all these things unless you're right in

your mind first. And so, so we've done that. And we partnered with some people on campus as well to try to have we had our first health and wellness day. We're trying to make that a part of our culture as far as what we do and how we take care of our own people. And so you got to talk about anything that's important. You got to

talk about it. Incassistently. And that's how you make it a part of your fabric and your DNA. And so mental health and the well-being of our people. That's just something that we're always thinking about and we're going to continue to think about. Look, I got a therapy every week, too. Just like you. And it's one of my favorite times of the day. I'm going to be

in the week. If I get a therapy every day, I would. But seriously, I think it's important that men are out there talking about mental health. Because, you know, it used to be that you had to be macho. And you, you know, we're going to lose playing time or lose your position with the coach. If you talked about your struggles with mental health. So the more

of us men that are out there saying it's okay to talk about it and go to therapy. And, you know, meditator. Do you want to talk about it? Whatever you need to do to help yourself, I think people are going to be far better off, especially our young people. And be vulnerable. You know, it's, we have to make sure our young people and not just young

people like my teammates, people I work with. It's okay to be vulnerable and share. Usually that helps you connect with people and it lets them, you know, kind of, kind of bring their guard down a little bit. And then that's when the magic happens when you're vulnerable and you're sharing your open and transparent. So then those layers get removed and you can be who you are.

You know, I want everybody to come to work being their authentic self. Because that's where the magic happens when you can be authentically you. So it's, it's important. It's something that that we're going to continue to invest time and resources into because, you know, that's at the end of the day, you got to, you got to make sure you take care of yourself and what you

need from a mental and emotional standpoint to be good. Martin Jarman, he is the director of athletics at UCLA. Thank you so much for joining me on Sports Business Radio. This was a pleasure. Continue success to you. And I got to get to a Bruins game one of these days. Yes, you do, Brian. Thanks for having me. Thanks for your radio. This was an honor for

me and let me know when you're in LA, man. You're listening to Sports Business Radio. We'll be right back. When it comes to your health and longevity, you hold nothing back. You understand what it means to put your push harder, reach farther, and go the extra mile. This relentless drive runs in your blood. That's why Inside Tracker provide you with a personalized plan to build strength,

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team at Sports Business Radio. Brian Griggs, Josh Blank, Ryan Nakajima, and our friends at CG Sports who power sports business radio. CG Young, Matt Amarlin, Nicole Wardle, and Calvin Works. I'm Brian Burger. Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon right here on Sports Business Radio. Sports and every SBR podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and your favorite listening app. Follow Sports

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