Kentucky governor appears to criticize retirement package given to outgoing AD Mitch Barnhart

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) appeared to take aim at the lucrative retirement package given to departing Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart in a statement questioning decisions at the university on Tuesday.

Barnhart, who is retiring this summer, is set to make over $900,000 in his next job with the university. He’s been named an executive in residence in the school’s Sport and Workforce Initiative by president Eli Capilouto — a job that seemingly does not have a defined role.

“I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky,” Beshear said in his statement. “My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty. I’ve been told that despite previously saying the dean must be approved by UK’s Board of Trustees, the university has shifted and now states that approval is not needed. I worry that these actions are related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university. I hope students, faculty, trustees and the community attend this week’s board meetings and ask the tough questions that should be answered.”

Upon the announcement of Barnhart’s retirement, the school said the longtime AD would be moving into a “new role” with the school. Barnhart has been Kentucky’s athletic director for 24 years and is the longest-serving power conference AD in the country.

In addition to his near-$1 million salary, Barnhart and his family will have 10 tickets to every Kentucky home football and basketball game in perpetuity and the school will continue to pay for his country club membership.

At the time of Barnhart’s retirement, a spokesperson for the school told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the school-funded Sport and Workforce Initiative’s “purpose is to better align the university with workforce need across Kentucky and strengthen students’ career readiness. Sports is one early focus, but it is only one part of a broader effort.”

One of Barnhart’s final moves before his retirement was to fire football coach Mark Stoops and replace him with Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein. Stoops was fired three years after he signed a contract extension through June of 2031. In the three full seasons since he signed that new deal, Stoops’ teams went 16-21 and missed bowl games in each of the past two seasons.