On balance, Mitch Barnhart left UK athletics better than he found it
In the 24 years Mitch Barnhart spent as Kentucky athletics director, UK’s financial investment in sports exploded.
When then-Kentucky president Lee T. Todd Jr. lured Barnhart away from Oregon State to become UK AD in 2002, the University of Kentucky athletics budget was $43 million.
This week, as Barnhart retires after 24 years leading Wildcat sports, the UK athletics budget is $185.9 million.
The athletics department Barnhart inherited in 2002 had 11 employees who held the titles of assistant AD or higher — with combined salaries of $878,686.
When Barnhart reported to work Tuesday for the final time, he was presiding over a department with 21 employees who carried the titles of assistant athletics director or higher — with combined salaries of $4,810,236 million.
In Barnhart’s first year as Kentucky athletics director, his salary before performance incentives was $375,000 — a $275,000 base, $100,000 for TV/radio responsibilities.
In the final year of Barnhart’s reign, his salary has been $1.425 million.
The escalation in revenue and spending at Kentucky in the Barnhart era essentially tracked the big-time college sports industry. As conference television rights deals skyrocketed, the resulting revenue transformed the economics of the schools at the top of the college athletics food chain — especially those in the Big Ten or, like UK, the Southeastern Conference.
In the final years of Barnhart’s UK run, critics suggested he had been slow to seize the possibilities for competitive advantage in the evolving college sports landscape of NIL, booster collectives and, ultimately, direct revenue sharing with athletes.
There was a touch of irony in that because Barnhart had been hired at Kentucky to be a reformer.
He assumed the UK AD’s position in the aftermath of the Cats football program having gone through a major NCAA scandal that sank the Hal Mumme coaching era.
Barnhart’s primary assignments from Todd at the time of the AD’s hiring were to create a culture of rules compliance at a school with a long history of sports scandals and to convert Kentucky from, mostly, a one-trick pony in sports into a comprehensive, SEC-worthy athletics department.
Deep into Barnhart’s tenure, UK had not had a major sports scandal. However, late in his run, Kentucky vacated a 10-win football season in 2021 due to NCAA rules violations. More troubling was a federal lawsuit filed in 2024 by ex-UK swimmers accusing Lars Jorgensen, the former Kentucky swim coach, of allegedly sexually harassing athletes on his team.
Unquestionably, Barnhart succeeded in transforming Kentucky into an all-around sports force.
Over his tenure, UK won six NCAA team championships spread across three sports — men’s basketball (one), rifle (four) and women’s volleyball (one).
The Cats were also team national runners-up eight times — once each in men’s basketball, men’s tennis, women’s outdoor track and field and women’s volleyball and four times in rifle.
Perhaps the most impressive athletics achievement of the Barnhart era played out on a global stage over the past two Summer Olympics. In Tokyo in 2021 and Paris in 2024, athletes who had competed at UK combined to win 21 Olympic medals, 14 of them gold.
Barnhart was part of an era of uncommon stability in the most visible roles at the University of Kentucky. In 24 years, he worked for two presidents, Todd and the current UK president, Eli Capilouto.
John Calipari served as UK men’s basketball coach under Barnhart from 2009 through 2024. Mark Stoops was Kentucky football coach from 2013 through 2025.
In his first six years, Calipari led UK to four Final Fours and an NCAA title.
Stoops took the Cats to eight straight bowl trips from 2016 through 2023 and became Kentucky’s all-time football coaching wins leader.
Alas, UK’s unusual stability seemed to turn into stagnation.
In his final four seasons, Calipari never got Kentucky out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Over his last two years, Stoops went 9-15 overall and won only three of 16 SEC games.
Barnhart appears to have left his UK successor, Michigan State AD J Batt, with a strong core in UK’s major coaching positions.
Kenny Brooks just took Kentucky women’s basketball to its first NCAA tourney sweet 16 since 2016 and is recruiting at a high level.
Nick Mingione has led UK baseball to NCAA Tournament regional finals in four-straight years.
Craig Skinner has coached women’s volleyball to the national championship match twice in the current decade.
Though yet to coach a game, new Wildcats football head man Will Stein has handled the PR aspects of his first college head coaching job with aplomb. Stein, too, is recruiting well.
After a difficult second season as Kentucky men’s basketball coach, Mark Pope appears to have put together a quality roster for Year 3 and is showing signs of life on the recruiting trail.
On balance, Mitch Barnhart is leaving a stronger, more-well-rounded Kentucky athletics department than the one he inherited in 2002.
