Kentucky’s Barnhart named chair of SEC athletics directors

University of Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart has been named chair of the Southeastern Conference Athletics Directors, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced Wednesday.

“Mitch’s experience as a proven leader makes him uniquely qualified to head our group of athletics directors during this particularly important time in the history of intercollegiate athletics,” Sankey said. “He commands the ability to identify solutions to problems and to navigate complex issues with a diverse group of strong leaders from our various institutions. I look forward to working with Mitch in his new role.”

Barnhart, who is in his 16th year as Kentucky athletics director, was selected by a unanimous vote of his fellow SEC athletics directors during a meeting on Tuesday in Birmingham.

In his new role, Barnhart will chair all meetings of the league’s athletics directors. He succeeds retiring Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs who served as chair of the SEC AD’s since 2012.

Barnhart — the longest-tenured athletics director in the conference — has been active in numerous SEC projects. Of recent note is his work with the SEC Compliance Committee and the SEC Network Content Committee, which helped produce the successful launch of the cable channel.

Voted the NCAA Division I Athletics Director of the Year by his peers in 2015, Barnhart’s leadership extends to the national level. He completed his first year as a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee in 2017. Other national leadership experience includes membership on the NCAA Division I Council, chair of the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee and membership on the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.

Barnhart’s legacy at UK includes helping develop administrators who have gone on to become athletics directors at nationally prominent universities, including Greg Byrne of Alabama, Mark Coyle at Minnesota, Rob Mullens at Oregon, Scott Stricklin at Florida and John Cohen at Mississippi State.

Barnhart arrived at UK from Oregon State, where he served four years (1998-2002) as athletics director. Before OSU, he worked in athletics administration posts at Tennessee (1986-98), Southern Methodist University (1983-86), Oregon (1983) and San Diego State (1982-83).

Barnhart is a native of Kansas City, Kan. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University (Kansas) in 1981 and a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University.

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Kentucky’s Barnhart named chair of SEC athletics directors."