After facing criticism, including from the state’s governor, Kentucky’s retiring athletic director Mitch Barnhart said Thursday that he will not accept a $1 million post with the university.
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto, who has announced the transition in March, and Barnhart issued statements that the latter will not become executive in residence for the UK Sports and Workforce Initiative. The position, which Gov. Andy Beshear called “a new $1 million job that has no defined duties” in a social media post on Tuesday, has also gotten backlash from major boosters of Kentucky athletics.
“Mitch Barnhart came to me earlier this week to share his concern that the discussion surrounding his future role leading our sports workforce initiative has become a distraction from the work of our university,” Capilouto said in a statement. “Mitch and his family care deeply about this institution and our state, and they want the focus to return to the work that matters most for our students and the Commonwealth.”
Capilouto said that Barnhart, 66, will retire as planned on June 30 but “step away” from the proposed role at the university. He said they will work through terms of his exit as guided by his contract. Barnhart reportedly was to be paid $950,000 annually through August 2030.
“The compensation associated with his departure will be supported entirely by private funds — not athletic funds, not funds that would go toward NIL opportunities or university funds — that I will raise,” Capilouto said. “Mitch’s impact on this university has been profound, and I am grateful for his decades of leadership and service.”
Barnhart has overseen the Wildcats’ athletic department since 2002 and is the longest-tenured athletic director in the Southeastern Conference.
In August 2023, Barnhart signed an extension on his contract through 2028. According to reports, his deal includes a clause allowing him to step down in July 2026 to transition to a non-athletic role such as special assistant to Capilouto.
Barnhart announced a change in plans in Thursday’s joint statement.
“With our family previously having made the decision to retire in June from the position of Athletics Director, we were very excited about beginning the Workforce Initiative, developing a new program and pouring into the next generation of leaders in sports,” Barnhart said. “Work has already begun on the Initiative but recently it has become apparent that now is not the right time and we would never stand in the way of what we deem best. The world of sports is dynamic and ever-changing. It is my hope that this initiative will continue in the future.”
The Wildcats have won six national championships during Barnhart’s tenure: men’s basketball (2012), women’s volleyball (2020) and the rifle team (2011, 2018, 2021 and 2022).
The Kentucky football program posted a pair of 10-win seasons (2018, 2021) on his watch, peaking with a No. 7 AP ranking during the 2022 campaign.
Barnhart was named the Division I Athletic Director of the Year by the Sports Business Journal in 2019.
More recently, the Kentucky football team’s descent led to the firing of head coach Mark Stoops in December after 13 seasons. The winningest football coach in school history, Stoops went 82-80, but his teams finished 4-8 in 2024 and 5-7 in 2025.
Kentucky owed Stoops a buyout of about $37.7 million, or 75% of the salary remaining on his contract.
The men’s basketball program, the pride of the Bluegrass State for generations and one of the sport’s blue bloods, saw highly accomplished coach John Calipari — who won a national championship in 2012 — leave in 2024 after 14 seasons. His replacement, Mark Pope, has not lived up to lofty expectations so far in Lexington.
“I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky,” Beshear said in a statement on Tuesday. “My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.”
