Mitch Barnhart (born August 27, 1959) is an American college athletics administrator. He is the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

for the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30, ...

athletics program at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

. Barnhart was hired by the university in 2002 succeeding Larry Ivy. Barnhart served in the same capacity at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

from 1998 to 2002. He is the university's tenth athletics director. In August 2023 Barnhart signed an extension on his contract which will keep him at Kentucky until 2028.

Education

Barnhart received his

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Ottawa University Ottawa University (OU) is a private Baptist university with its main campus in Ottawa, Kansas. It also has a second residential campus in Surprise, Arizona, and adult campuses in the Kansas City and Milwaukee metropolitan areas, as well as onlin ...

and a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in sports administration from

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

Tenure at Kentucky

Barnhart is currently the longest serving AD in the SEC. For the 2016–17 school year, Kentucky athletics finished 10th nationally in the

NACDA Directors' Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to the colleges an ...

, more than 100 student-athletes graduating, and finishing five straight years with an average GPA of over 3.0. As of 2017, several coaches and administrators who have worked under Barnhart at Kentucky are now serving as athletic directors at other universities, including: *

Greg Byrne Greg Byrne, King's Counsel, KC (born April 14, 1960, in Harvey, New Brunswick) is a lawyer and former Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, MLA in the Province (Canada), province of New Brunswick, Canada. Byrne was educated at Fredericton Hig ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

Mark Coyle Mark Coyle is the 23rd director of athletics at the University of Minnesota, replacing Norwood Teague. He resigned as the athletics director at Syracuse University in May 2016 after spending only 11 months with the Syracuse Orange. Prior to th ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Rob Mullens Rob Mullens is the current athletic director at the University of Oregon. He has presided over the most successful period in Oregon history, dubbed by some as the "Decade of the Duck." He was hired on July 15, 2010 from Kentucky where he was the ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

* Scott Stricklin at

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

* John Cohen at Auburn * DeWayne Peevy at DePaul *Kevin Saal at

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...

Barnhart was inducted into

Omicron Delta Kappa Omicron Delta Kappa (), also known as The Circle and ODK, is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes leadership and scholarship. It was founded in 1914, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and has chartered more t ...

- The National Leadership Honor Society at the University of Kentucky in 2017. In April 2024, Barnhart would be named in a

Title IX Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...

sexual violence lawsuit which accused him of complicity with former swim coach Lars Jorgensen, who was accused of being a sexual predator while he was a swim coach at the University of Kentucky between 2013 and 2023. Emails from June 2012 also revealed that Mark Howard, a former assistant swimming coach at the University of Toledo, informed both Barnhart and

Gary Conelly Gary Robert Conelly (born October 18, 1952) is an American former swimmer who represented the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Conelly swam for the winning U.S. teams in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×100-m ...

, who at time served as University of Kentucky's head swim coach, that Jorgensen was accused of being involved in a sexual relationship with a female student he coached while employed at the University of Toledo.

References

External links

Kentucky profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnhart, Mitch 1959 births Living people Kentucky Wildcats athletic directors Oregon State Beavers athletic directors Ottawa University alumni