Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart is expected to retire sometime in the near future, multiple outlets report. Barnhart is in his 24th year at Kentucky, making him the longest-tenured FBS athletic director.
Barnhart signed a contract extension in 2023 that originally locked him in through June 2028.
Barnhart arrived at Kentucky in 2002 after four years as the athletic director at Oregon State. The Wildcats have earned six NCAA championships and 60 regular-season and conference tournament titles under Barnhart’s tenure.
He hired two of Kentucky’s most iconic coaches — former men’s basketball boss John Calipari and ex-football coach Mark Stoops — during his tenure. Calipari came to Lexington by way of Memphis in 2009 to replace Billy Gillispie, whom Barnhart fired in March 2009.
In his 16 seasons as Kentucky’s coach, Calipari won one national title (2012), made three Final Four appearances, qualified for the NCAA Tournament in all but two years and captured a combined 12 SEC titles.
Calipari, who was a member of the 2015 Basketball Hall of Fame class, left Kentucky for Arkansas in April 2024. Barnhart hired former Kentucky forward and BYU coach Mark Pope to replace Calipari. Pope is 41-22 with an 18-14 record in SEC play in his two seasons with the Wildcats.
Barnhart hired Stoops in 2013 to revive a Kentucky program that hadn’t had a winning season since 2009. Stoops made it to the first of eight consecutive bowl games in 2016. The Wildcats had a 4-4 postseason record in that span.
Stoops passed Bear Bryant as Kentucky’s all-time winningest football coach in 2022. He was also named the 2018 SEC Coach of the Year after leading Kentucky to its first 10-win season since 1977 and just its third all-time.
Stoops, who was fired in December following consecutive losing seasons, left Kentucky with a 72-80 record.
Barnhart boasts an extensive administrative tree. Several coaches or front office personnel that have worked under Barnhart have gone on to become athletic directors, including Alabama’s Greg Byrne, Auburn’s John Cohen and Florida’s Scott Stricklin.
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