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Myron Medcalf
multiple authors
University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart announced Thursday he will leave a $1 million retirement program that was widely criticized, days after the state’s governor criticized the move.
Earlier this year, Kentucky President Eli Capilootto announced that Barnhart Will retire on June 30 before accepting seven-figure program As executive in residence for the UK Sports and Workforce Initiative, an assignment with some contractual details that prompted prominent Kentucky boosters to demand the decision be reversed.
Capilouto said Thursday that Barnhart would no longer accept the role.
“Mitch Barnhart came to me earlier this week to share his concern that the discussion about his future role in our sports workforce initiative has become a distraction from the work of our university,” Capilouto said in a news release. “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 to our students and the Commonwealth.
“With this in mind, Mitch has informed me that he will retire from his position as Director of Athletics on June 30 and step away from a proposed ongoing role leading the Sports Workforce Initiative at the university. Over the next several weeks, he and I will work on the terms of his departure through the process guided by his contract.”
On Tuesday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear added to the controversy when he released a statement questioning the university’s recent actions. Including Barnhart’s proposed retirement job.
“I am losing confidence and becoming increasingly concerned about the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky,” Beshear said in a statement Tuesday. “My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job with no defined duties.”
Despite emphasizing the response in recent months, Barnhart and Capilouto collectively struck a different tone in Thursday’s announcement.
Beshear’s words also shed light on Barnhart’s turbulent tenure. He is credited with hiring Mark Stoops, who led two of the program’s four 10-win seasons in football, and John Calipari, who led the men’s basketball team to a national title in 2012.
But Barnhart’s deteriorating relationship with Calipari led to the coach’s ouster in 2024, and the ADs fired Stoops in December. In football, he hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein to replace Stoops. In basketball, Mark Pope—appointed by Barnhart to replace Calipari—is coming off a poor sophomore season, finishing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Pope has also not been a top 100 recruit and missed key portal goals, a development that has led to speculation about his future entering his third year with the program.
Barnhart was also named in a 2024 Title IX lawsuit involving former swimming coach Lars Jorgensen, who was accused of sexual assault by multiple swimmers. He also accused the university of failing to address sexual harassment allegations against Jorgensen, who resigned in 2024 and was banned from coaching by the US Center for SafeSport.
Regarding this week’s move, Barnhart said in a statement, “With our family having already made the decision to retire from the athletics director position in June, we were very excited to launch the workforce initiative, develop a new program, and engage the next generation of leaders in sports. Work on the initiative has already begun but recently it has become clear that now is not the right time and we will never stand in the way of what we believe is best. The world of sports is dynamic and Always changing. This is mine.” It is hoped that this initiative will continue in the future also.”
