Longtime Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart is expected to retire, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Tuesday morning. Barnhart was hired as the Wildcats’ AD in 2002 and is the longest-tenured Athletics Director in the Southeastern Conference.
Prior to his time at Kentucky, Barnhart served as Oregon State’s AD from 1998 to 2002. Before that, he served in an athletics administration role at Tennessee from 1986 to 1998. As On3’s Chris Low pointed out on X, Barnhart was mentored under Hall of Famer Doug Dickey during his 12 years with the Volunteers’ athletics department. Dickey served as Tennessee Football’s head coach from 1964 to 1969 and the Volunteers’ AD from 1985 to 2002.
Barnhart’s track record at Kentucky comes with some extremely high moments for the Wildcats’ program and some forgettable ones as well. Barnhart was responsible for the hirings of Mark Stoops in football, John Calipari in men’s basketball, and Nick Mingione in baseball. He also hired Joker Phillips in football and Billy Gillispie in men’s basketball.
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Barnhart’s final two hires during his time in Lexington were head men’s basketball coach Mark Pope and head football coach Will Stein. The latter was hired this past December and has yet to make his official in-game debut as the Wildcats’ coach, though there is plenty of optimism around his future in Lexington.
According to On3’s Pete Nakos, seven former staffers under Barnhart have moved on to Division I AD roles: Alabama’s Greg Byrne, Minnesota’s Mark Coyle, Oregon’s Rob Mullens, Florida’s Scott Stricklin, Auburn’s John Cohen, DePaul’s DeWayne Peevy, and Wichita State’s Kevin Seal.
Barnhart’s expected retirement will cause a big shakeup for the Wildcats’ athletics program in Lexington.
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