What is Mitch Barnhart’s new role at UK? Retiring AD is ‘trying to define’ it
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- Outgoing University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart explains his new job.
- Barnhart will retire from his post as UK’s AD at the end of June 2026.
- Barnhart will be the first executive in residence of a UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.
Mitch Barnhart is leaving one administrative role at the University of Kentucky and taking on another.
The UK athletic director — who will retire from his post at the end of June following a 24-year run — will remain at the university as the first executive in residence of a new UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.
And though he’s still working with UK to determine what the role is, he has a sense of what it’s not.
“This notion that this golden parachute is falling from the ceiling, and I’m going to sit in a rocking chair and eat hay is ridiculous garbage,” Barnhart said during a press conference Friday afternoon. “That notion that (was) started by some, a couple, two or three knuckleheads, needs to end. I’m excited about working. I’m not done.
“In a nutshell, I have some sense of where we’re going to go and how we’re going to do it. But building, sometimes you get into it and you figure out how to build after that and you go. And I’m going to do that.”
Barnhart is set to be paid $950,000 per year through August 2030. According to Kentucky, that money will be paid from the school’s athletics budget.
Barnhart’s most recent contract as athletic director — a position he’s held since July 2002 — allowed him to transition to an ambassador role with the school starting in July. According to a contract amendment that Barnhart signed this week, the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative is designed as a “transdisciplinary and collaborative approach to the study and promotion of sports.”
On Friday, the Herald-Leader asked Barnhart to provide details about this new position following a retirement ceremony that took place in front of media members and invited guests at UK’s Memorial Coliseum.
“I’m trying to define what that is, and we’re obviously going to have to build that from the ground up in some respects,” Barnhart said. “There’s some things in place, to be able to work on that. The position is no longer ambassador. It reframed where we are.”
In a Tuesday afternoon news release that announced Barnhart’s job change, UK President Eli Capilouto referenced the new initiative.
“College athletics is undergoing a dramatic series of changes. We need people — from sports administration, to marketing, from philanthropy to academic support and mental and physical health — ready for leadership,” Capilouto said in the release. “Mitch is distinctly equipped to help us think about the future of intercollegiate sports. I am excited he accepted my offer to take on this new role.”
Capilouto was not present at Friday’s event. UK officials said Capilouto was out of town on university business. A recorded video message from Capilouto was shown to begin the event.
“The job was a little ambiguous as an ambassador, and then I think what (Capilouto) did was he put pen to paper and gave it some clear direction as to what we’re trying to do and be a part of the workforce initiative to create jobs and to get young people on a path,” Barnhart said.
Barnhart explained that he frequently gets résumés from people looking to begin careers in the sports industry, but without direction on how to start.
“They think just walking out of here with a degree that they’re ready to go... ‘I can do marketing. I’ve got a marketing degree,’” Barnhart said. “They don’t even know what that means in the world of sports. They have no idea what it means to be operations in sports.”
Barnhart said he hopes to “teach, mentor and grow” young people as part of his position with the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.
“I think there will be pieces that are in place that we can augment, and then there’s pieces that we’re going to build from the ground up,” Barnhart said.
