Retiring Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart has declined a post-retirement position at the school after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear criticized the move earlier this week.

Barnhart, who will retire on June 30, had planned to lead the school’s sports and workforce initiative, a newly created position, with a payment of nearly $1 million a year. Outcry from the school’s boosters and the public followed after Banrhart announced his retirement in March.

"With our family previously having made the decision to retire in June from the position of Athletics Director, we were very excited about beginning the Workforce Initiative, developing a new program and pouring into the next generation of leaders in sports,” Barnhart said in a statement released by the school Thursday. “Work has already begun on the initiative, but recently it has become apparent that now is not the right time and we would never stand in the way of what we deem best. The world of sports is dynamic and ever-changing. It is my hope that this initiative will continue in the future."

Kentucky President Dr. Eli Capilouto said Barnhart approached him after Beshear issued a statement critical of the direction of the university.

"I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky," Beshear said Tuesday on social media. "My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties."

Now in his 24th year, Barnhart is the longest-serving athletics director in the nation and has been at the helm since 2002. Under his guidance, the school has claimed six national titles in various sports, along with 63 conference titles, including first-time championships in baseball, women’s tennis, men’s golf, women’s swimming and diving and stunt.

Capilouto said 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. 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 for our students and the commonwealth.

“With that in mind, Mitch has informed me that he will retire from his position of Athletics Director on June 30 and step away from the proposed ongoing role leading the sports workforce initiative at the university. Over the next several weeks, he and I will work through the terms of his departure through a process guided by his contract.

“The compensation associated with his departure will be supported entirely by private funds — not athletic funds, not funds that would go toward NIL opportunities or university funds — that I will raise. Mitch’s impact on this university has been profound, and I am grateful for his decades of leadership and service.”


Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart speaks during a press conference lsat month at Memorial Coliseum. (Keith Taylor/Kentucky Today)