Evaluating Martin Jarmond's Time at Boston College
Martin Jarmond will become the highest paid AD in the PAC-12 when he is officially hired by UCLA. With Jarmond time at Boston College competed, it is now time to look back at his time in Chestnut Hill and evaluate how he did in his position. There are multiple factors that go into an AD's job, so let's break down each piece to give a grade on Jarmond's performance.
Facilities: The Fish Fieldhouse was already funded by the time Jarmond took over, but completed while he was there. He did however lead the creation of the Pete Frates Center, a mammoth upgrade in baseball facilities which should put Boston College baseball in much better shape in the ACC. However, his white whale, the basketball practice facility was never finalized. If BC can get that up and going soon, he should get credit for being an integral part of the funding for that. Grade B
Fundraising: Jarmond's $150 million "Greater Heights" campaign was well on tract to surpass it's original completion date when COVID-19 hit/he left for UCLA. Jarmond was a skilled recruiter for funds, and connected very well with donors. Grade A
Fan Experience: Jarmond did a number of things for BC Athletics that improved fan experience. He started an informal "we hear you" campaign that addressed some of the biggest gripes fans had about on campus sporting events. He got alcohol served at Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium, got new apparel sold at the bookstores, was a smiling face at every football game and most recently got the vaunted tailgating time extended something many fans never thought possible. However, he never was able to get improve attendance at basketball games, even though he tried different strategies. Grade A-
Programs: During his time at Boston College, the programs were run clean with no major incidents to blemish the school. However, basketball, one of the revenue sports, has a profile that is still very low after struggling for years and not improving under his watch. Grade B
Personnel Moves: There are two ways of evaluating this. On one hand he injected immediate energy into his marquee football program with the hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, and did a fantastic job hiring Joanna McNamee for women's basketball. But on the other hand, the argument could be made that he waited too long to fire Steve Addazio who clearly plateaued, and failed to pull the trigger on Jim Christian on two separate occasions after a series of poor seasons. The optics are also poor that he didn't move on from Christian after another poor season because the school said they couldn't hold a search, yet Jarmond somehow got himself a job in the same COVID19 conditions. Fair or not, people are going to compare these. Grade C
Overall Grade: Jarmond was only on the Heights for three years, but in that time his charismatic style, and vision helped moved the Boston College athletics program forward. He wasn't perfect, and I'm sure the politics of working at BC wasn't easy, but for the most part Martin Jarmond was all you could ask for in an AD. It would have been nice to have him for a few more years, but Jarmond left Boston College in a better place than it was when he got here. Grade B+
Related Links
Martin Jarmond Reportedly Named New UCLA AD
Martin Jarmond A Finalist for UCLA AD Job
A Look at Potential Replacements For Martin Jarmond
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