(WKYT) – The University of Kentucky announced Tuesday that Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart is retiring and will move into a new position at the end of June.
Barnhart’s tenure at Kentucky began in 2002, making him the longest-tenured athletics director in the Power Four conferences. Over 24 years, Kentucky teams under his watch won six NCAA team national championships.
Barnhart’s next position will be with the “UK Sport and Workforce Initiative.” The university said it will share more specifics about the role in the coming weeks.
Drew Franklin, co-host of Kentucky Sports Radio, said the retirement announcement did not come as a surprise. Franklin said he hopes Barnhart’s work elevating secondary sports is not overlooked in the search for a new athletics director.
“The job Mitch Barnhart took in 2000-whatever is so much different than it is in 2026,” Franklin said.
Franklin said he believes a candidate with a connection to Barnhart would be a strong contender for the position, given that Barnhart will remain at the university for several years.
KSR hosts also expressed hope that Barnhart’s continued presence at the university would not limit the athletic programs’ ability to grow, pointing to areas such as NIL and alcohol sales at games as examples where Kentucky waited for other schools to act first.
Fans at KRBar said they hope a new athletics director will prioritize innovation. Alan Cornett said he thinks the change will benefit players focused on building their name, image and likeness.
“From now on there’s going to be NIL, so you have to have an athletic director that accepts that and is willing to work in that system because that’s just the system you’re going to have,” Cornett said.
Lifelong fan Nicholas Britton said he hopes changes include upgrades to Kroger Field.
“I’ve been coming to games since I was about six years old and the product has been relatively the same during a good chunk of that, and I think we need big changes to make it a whole new experience,” Britton said.
Many fans said they appreciate Barnhart’s coaching hires throughout his tenure at UK.