As other SEC schools reveal revenue sharing plans, Mitch Barnhart has a different outlook
Just more than a month from the scheduled hearing where a federal judge could give final approval to the legal settlement that paves the way for athletic departments to start sharing revenue with athletes, SEC schools are starting to announce their plans for adapting to the new world of college sports.
Texas plans to add almost 200 scholarships, mostly in non-revenue sports. Georgia is moving forward with a planned revenue split that would provide 75% of the $20.5 million schools would be able to distribute to athletes to football players, 15% to men’s basketball players, 5% to women’s basketball players and 5% to other sports.
Meanwhile, in UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart’s report to the Board of Trustees athletics committee in January, he shared no specific details about his department’s plan.
“A lot of people are putting in a lot of hours trying to get ready on a lot of fronts, whether that’s locally, here at our institution, at the conference level, and then nationally,” Barnhart told the committee. “I’m thankful for everyone’s participation, but more about that as we go.”
Asked why other schools are beginning to share public plans while Kentucky is not in a one-on-one interview with the Herald-Leader this week, Barnhart pointed to his work on the national implementation committee working to finalize how college sports will operate if the settlement is approved as evidence there is still far too much uncertainty to go public with final plans.
Barnhart spent more than a dozen hours on one Zoom meeting for that committee over the weekend and had more meetings scheduled for later in the week.
“We think we know, but a lot depends on what Judge (Claudia) Wilken says in California, too,” Barnhart said. “And there’s pieces that lead up into all of that. So, yeah, I think there’s people getting ready. We’re getting ready. We’re thoughtful about how we’re doing it.
“... There’s been good conversation about that, and so I think that’s been important. But we’re not ready to roll out a formula. But we’re getting there.”
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While Barnhart has not gone public with any plans for how UK plans to distribute the maximum $20.5 million allowed by the settlement to athletes or how many scholarships the department will add if the settlement abolishes current scholarship limits in favor of larger roster limits as expected, that does not mean those conversations are not already happening behind the scenes.
Before their seasons started last month, UK baseball coach Nick Mingione and softball coach Rachel Lawson told the Herald-Leader they are expecting additional scholarships for their 2026 rosters. Mingione said he expected UK’s final scholarship number to be in the 20s, up from the current 11.7 limit that has long hampered baseball recruiting.
“I’m super thankful for that,” Mingione said. “Why? Because our families have been paying a lot of money to come to school here, and … before NIL that was the hardest part of my job, was juggling the 11.7. How do I sit across from my family and say, ‘We love your son, but you gotta pay 40 grand to come here?’ Like, that was hard.
“So hopefully we’ve kind of shrunk in that, and we’ve got our program to a spot where we’ll be able to have better conversations, and it would be not as expensive for some of these families.”
The boost for non-revenue sports is likely to come in the form of additional scholarships, but so-called revenue sharing payments will probably have the biggest effect in football and men’s basketball, the only sports that make money for UK. The 75-15-5-5 revenue sharing breakdown announced by Georgia is similar to the formula the settlement uses to disperse back pay to former athletes who were not allowed to profit off their name, image and likeness under former NCAA rules based on what sport they played.
Multiple reports across the country have revealed schools already entering into contracts with football players for revenue sharing deals for the 2025-26 school year that are contingent on the House settlement being approved and going into effect on July 1, but UK responded to a January open records request from the Herald-Leader asking for any contracts it had entered into with athletes by saying none existed.
Four weeks after UK denied that request, football coach Mark Stoops acknowledged revenue sharing had been part of the negotiations with the 20-man transfer class he welcomed to campus in January.
“We just worked off of what we knew we could do for a year,” Stoops said. “I think all coaches would like to know and have our rosters pretty stable year to year. So that’s what we were able to do.
“We will adapt. We are in a position to operate on this year. We know the revenue share would kick in, should the judge approve it, in July. But that is all part of their contracts that we already negotiated with them.”
How schools will fund the $20.5 million in revenue sharing and cost of any added scholarships is one of the biggest questions facing athletic departments. Kentucky’s athletic department is financially self-sufficient and even gives money back to the academic side of the university to fund scholarships and the school’s Don Jacobs Science building, but Barnhart has acknowledged even departments like his will face difficult decisions about financial cuts.
Avoiding cutting non-revenue sports entirely and laying off staff are primary goals for UK, Barnhart said.
“Not easy,” he said. “We’ve got some plans, some places that we think we can change revenue to help create more revenue. We’re gonna have to be more efficient some ways. And we’ll have some of those conversations with our coaches and say, ‘Hey, these are some of the things we used to do, but we’re gonna have to trim this thought back.’
“Maybe it’s how we schedule. Maybe it’s how we travel a little bit differently. But there’s thoughts, there’s things, and none of them are going to be one solution is going to fix everything. … It’s going to have to be shared sacrifice and shared creative thoughts.”
The settlement would allow schools to directly facilitate NIL endorsement deals between athletes and outside companies that would provide compensation in addition to whatever revenue sharing they receive directly from the school. What effect that ability has on current third-party NIL collectives that fill that role is unclear, and Barnhart said he was not ready to say whether Kentucky would continue to rely on outside collectives moving forward.
He did encourage any fans who want to financially support the program’s revenue sharing efforts to donate directly to the athletic department’s K Fund though.
“To those folks, to the 5-10%, whatever the number is, that know a little bit about (the settlement), and say, ‘Hey, man, we want to be supportive and help,’ thank you,” Barnhart said. “Appreciate that very, very much. There’s so many people that are depending on that, and so super appreciative for our fan base.
“We’re so fortunate in that, but most folks don’t understand the guard rails or the boundaries we’re working our way through, and no one would expect that. That’s too much, and it’s too complicated. Just appreciate them being supportive.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 7:00 AM.