Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart will walk away from a $1 million retirement arrangement after the deal drew widespread criticism, according to ESPN.
Mitch Barnhart will not take a $950,000-per-year executive role at the University of Kentucky, the school confirmed Thursday, reversing a plan that drew public criticism from the governor and at least one major donor.
Barnhart and UK President Eli Capilouto issued statements confirming that Barnhart would withdraw from the executive-in-residence post for the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative. The position had been set to pay him $950,000 annually through August 2030.
"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 Thursday.
Barnhart announced in March that he would retire as athletic director on June 30 after 24 years in the role, the longest tenure of any AD in the Southeastern Conference. Capilouto initially framed the new initiative job as a way to keep Barnhart at the institution, releasing a video on March 23 in which he said the university needed to be "more entrepreneurial and intentional" as the college athletics landscape changed.
That framing did not hold. On Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear released a statement saying he was "losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned" about decision-making at UK. Beshear cited two specific issues: the new role for Barnhart, which he called a "$1 million job that has no defined duties," and the appointment of a law school dean who was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.
A donor named Brett Setzer had also written to the university questioning the position, calling the salary "astonishing" and the decision to create the role without a formal job description "deeply misguided." Setzer warned it would send "the wrong message" and cost the university more once benefits and other expenses were factored in.
Barnhart, in his own statement Thursday, said the initiative work had already begun but that "it has become apparent that now is not the right time."
Capilouto said private funds, not athletic or university funds, would cover any compensation owed to Barnhart under the terms of his existing contract. He did not specify the amount or source of those private funds.
Barnhart had been set to receive the money as part of his departure from the university, but the public backlash prompted him to give up the payout. No additional details about the structure of the original agreement or the timeline of his retirement were immediately available.
Barnhart has been Kentucky's athletic director for more than two decades, overseeing the department through significant growth in facilities, budgets, and competitive programs across multiple sports.
