LEXINGTON, KY– Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart has retired He won’t be taking on a new, high-paying role at the school After all, an announcement comes days later Gov. Andy Beshear has questioned the school’s decision-making process Which included Barnhart’s move.
Barnhart and University of Kentucky President Eli Capilotto issued statements Thursday confirming that Barnhart will not become executive director-in-residence for the UK Sports and Workforce Initiative. The job was to pay Barnhart $950,000 annually through August 2030, according to contract details.
“Mitch Barnhart came to me earlier this week to share his concern that discussion about his future role in leading our athletic workforce initiative has become a distraction from the work of our university,” Capilotto said. “Mitch and his family care deeply about this institution and our state, and want the focus to return to the work that is most important to our students and the commonwealth.”
Barnhart will retire June 30 as AD, a role he has held since 2002 as the longest-serving athletic director in the Southeastern Conference. Capilotto said he would raise private money — “not athletic money, not money that would go toward NIL opportunities or college money,” Capilotto said — to handle compensation for Barnhart’s exit tied to the terms of his contract.
“Work has already begun on the initiative but it has recently become clear that now is not the time and we will never stand in the way of what we consider best,” Barnhart said.
On Tuesday, Beshear issued a statement saying he was “losing confidence and growing concerned” about Barnhart’s role and the overall decision-making process in the UK.
“My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million position that has no specific duties, and the announcement that the new law dean is the only candidate not recommended by the law school faculty,” Beshear said in the statement.
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