Can someone with knowledge of NIL

[Wunky]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

 

[Anon1759768907]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

not including other incentives besides nil (hiring family members, or stuff like that)

 

[BlueSince92]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

I don’t pretend to know what it is but there is some damn reason we can’t close a single meaningful recruiting deal. Mark Pope is not bad enough with people or bad enough evaluating talent as he would need to be otherwise. He simply isn’t.

I’ll believe pro wrestling is real before I’ll believe Mark Pope started out with twenty-two million dollars he could spend any way he wanted to and wound up with (no offense) this roster.

 

[Uncle ByeBye]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

Legitimate NIL deals, sending them through NIL GO for approval. Following the steps as they were laid out. There are schools that started bypassing NIL GO because of the bottleneck

 

[ukfan042]

Legitimate NIL deals, sending them through NIL GO for approval. Following the steps as they were laid out. There are schools that started bypassing NIL GO because of the bottleneck

That’s what we need to do! It’s the Wild West…F*** it!

 

[Uncle ByeBye]

That’s what we need to do! It’s the Wild West…F*** it!

I agree . We seem to be the only one following the rules lol

 

[Kentucky15]

We are the only program that is going by “the rules “ as in following the rules of collectives. Problem is nobody follows them. Nobody. Absolutely nobody.

Mitch isn’t fooling anyone. IMO He doesn’t want any money going outside the hands of the men that have kept him in power here. He’s a hatchet man, he’s not a legitimate competitive AD who’s paid to find out how to win at elite levels. This is a land lord university. Hes never produced so staying here 23 years makes no sense. Especially considering he likely stood in the way of the best hire during his tenure. He has nothing elite, some average, and lots really bad decisions. 23 years? Not how this works.

Mitch is a hatchet man for the establishment here. He should have been removed or forced out a long time ago. He’s always been bad for these programs.
.

 

[Kentucky15]

That’s what we need to do! It’s the Wild West…F*** it!

What’s sad is it’s not even the Wild West, it’s mainstream now. It’s every day downtown.

And Mitch wants to keep his family station wagon from the 70’s and do the speed limit when everyone else has moved Fast N Furious. He runs this like it’s a little league, like it’s some kind of Boy Scout committee. This is the most corrupt conference in America. If he’s so clean why does he work in that? Because he’s not, his job isn’t to win, his job is to bring revenue and get out of the way.

Mitch is obsessed with himself and his image. He’s corrupt though, don’t let him fool you. I do believe he believes his BS, but Mitch is corrupt, this is just how he plays it. All my opinion but I believe there’s plenty of evidence.

 

[crashtestdummy_rivals61973]

Mitch "Moses" Barnhart need to be gone....

 

[Anon1764301234]

His name ain’t baby, it’s Mitch, Miss Barnhart if ya nasty!!!

 

[fisherscatfan]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

There is a push to move NIL away from pay to play to true business transactions. (This is exclusive of the new revenue sharing.) That is a great thing. So deals over $600 are supposed to go through NILGo system for approval. NIL is to be reviewed for legitimate business purpose and appropriate market value. When initially setup by Deloitte and the College sports Commission (I think) Deloitte stated around 70% of external “collective” deals were not meeting requirements. I think a lot of these external collectives deals have historically required very little of the athlete to get paid large amounts. Now to comply with NILGo you have to basically get a business to pay the athlete for a service and it has to be a reasonable payment according to some market value algorithm. I’m sure that is much more difficult to get large amounts approved. Some schools that use external collectives are frustrated and doing deals and allegedly forgoing NILGo. So now some are apparently getting deals/money to athletes quicker than those complying with NILGo. See link below for a discussion.

Collectives Abandon NIL Go - Front Office Sports

frontofficesports.com

The JMI deal according to comments from JMI, appears to use JMI to monitor NIL deals for compliance at UK including external collectives. JMI claims that they bring UK access to its business partners and will provide easier access to NIL deals. See the link below:

University of Kentucky and JMI Sports Announce BBNIL Suite to Streamline the NIL Experience for Student-Athletes and Partners

New integrated NIL collaborative strengthens UK’s recruiting tools, brand growth, and student-athlete support

www.jmisports.com

UK has stated it does not preclude athletes from external collectives but implies using the in-house collective is strongly preferred.

So if some schools are just doing NIL deals through their external collectives and not running through NILGo what is their risk? They evidently believe getting recruits the money is worth the risk. I would guess this is what Mitch is referring to. that UK won’t do. I would also guess JMI will not approve any collective deal on behalf of a UK athlete that won’t meet NILGo in their opinion or hasn’t been submitted to NILGo. Risk monitoring function by JMI.

This has ZERO impact on this current BB team as some will try to say people are claiming. But look at the reports that NIL is holding up Collins recruiting. Is that a JMI deal issue or a Pope issue? Nobody can say for sure.

There is a belief that UK and JMI felt Congress was going to pass the SCORE Act which would have brought some certainty to NIL monitoring/approval etc. But Congress will not bring SCORE to a vote because they don’t have the votes to pass.

Mitch’s reaction to a rather benign question by the LHL was odd. There are some legit questions and that doesn’t make those asking a puppet being manipulated. Things are continually evolving & the contract is 15 years so there is concern will UK be locked in or can the contract adapt with changes. If nothing reels in the actions of collectives, UK will have to respond accordingly.

Hopefully this works out for UK. You have to feel Will Stein would have gotten real comfortable with this before coming on board. So there’s that.

Sorry for the novel.

 

[Verbal Kint II]

We are the only program that is going by “the rules “ as in following the rules of collectives. Problem is nobody follows them. Nobody. Absolutely nobody.

Mitch isn’t fooling anyone. IMO He doesn’t want any money going outside the hands of the men that have kept him in power here. He’s a hatchet man, he’s not a legitimate competitive AD who’s paid to find out how to win at elite levels. This is a land lord university. Hes never produced so staying here 23 years makes no sense. Especially considering he likely stood in the way of the best hire during his tenure. He has nothing elite, some average, and lots really bad decisions. 23 years? Not how this works.

Mitch is a hatchet man for the establishment here. He should have been removed or forced out a long time ago. He’s always been bad for these programs.
.

This clueless fraud is an expert on what every other school is doing now. In reality he’s utterly clueless about how anything works so he lies and uses vague accusations to attack UK. Now UK is “following the rules of collectives” and no one else is. All of this following rules of collectives is killing us apparently. He lazily adopts others talking points that he doesn’t fully understand so he can’t explain his claims or give specifics, and thinks UK is a “land lord university”.

 

[AllBall]

Explain to me what Mitch meant the other day when he insisted to reporters that UK was going to do things “by the book” and “follow the rules” (paraphrasing) ??

I was under the impression there were no rules anymore. At least that’s how every other power conference school is acting.

Is Mitch’s irrational fear of some retroactive punishment once legislation is re-written the reason we can’t close a recruiting deal? Sure seems that way.

*See JMI deal
Essentially, we are handcuffing ourselves until the SCORE Act is passed. Mitch jumped the gun and he's upset Congress tabled the bill. If I understand correctly, other deals allow outside private collectives to raise additional money to fund NIL. Barnhart believes it's cheating bc he wasn't prudent handling business.

 

[RuppLives]

not including other incentives besides nil (hiring family members, or stuff like that)

When Mitch says we will “do things by the book” and “follow the rules,” he isn’t pretending NIL has strict guardrails right now. What he’s really saying is that UK won’t play in the legal gray areas that other schools are using to land players. NIL rules are really messy, constantly shifting, and mostly unenforced, and many programs have decided to take advantage of that chaos. We are choosing not to. Barnhart is betting that the landscape will eventually get regulated, and schools that bent the rules will get burned later.

That leads to the frustration we all feel. It looks like every other program is buying rosters and operating however they please, while our program insists on a compliance-first strategy. There’s truth in that perception. Our NIL operation is heavily controlled, documented, and audited, while many schools let boosters, collectives, or third-party groups work in ways that are harder to trace. Those programs can throw out faster, bigger deals and take recruiting swings that we won’t touch because the offers might not hold up under future rules.

So the issue isn’t that Mitch is afraid for no reason. It’s that his caution carries real competitive cost right now. He wants long-term protection, fewer risks, and a clean reputation when federal or NCAA enforcement eventually tightens. But that comes at the price of losing some battles in the current arms race. Whether that tradeoff is smart depends on what comes next: if regulators crack down, Barnhart looks ahead of the curve. If they don’t, UK risks being “right” but irrelevant.

The truth sits in the middle. Mitch isn’t wrong to want stability, but winning in the NIL era still requires aggression. Our program has to prove it can stay compliant and competitive, not hide behind rules no one else cares about.

 

[Farsight Clone]

This clueless fraud is an expert on what every other school is doing now. In reality he’s utterly clueless about how anything works so he lies and uses vague accusations to attack UK. Now UK is “following the rules of collectives” and no one else is. All of this following rules of collectives is killing us apparently. He lazily adopts others talking points that he doesn’t fully understand so he can’t explain his claims or give specifics, and thinks UK is a “land lord university”.

And by this post, you didn't even provide any substance to your own criticism. You simply blasted him and did not provide a coherent retort other than to defend the institution. I have seen your posts on here and you defend it like crazy. Either you're apart of the athletic department or work for JMI or both.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

This clueless fraud is an expert on what every other school is doing now. In reality he’s utterly clueless about how anything works so he lies and uses vague accusations to attack UK. Now UK is “following the rules of collectives” and no one else is. All of this following rules of collectives is killing us apparently. He lazily adopts others talking points that he doesn’t fully understand so he can’t explain his claims or give specifics, and thinks UK is a “land lord university”.

What do people mean by saying you are a JMI “mole”? I like your posts about this topic as I usually find you end up with some of the same conclusions I have, but mine are based on inferences and listening closely to others involved in the deal. Do you have any involvement with JMI? I’d not consider that to make you less credible but potentially more credible on this topic, but I’d like to know what biases you work from.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

When Mitch says we will “do things by the book” and “follow the rules,” he isn’t pretending NIL has strict guardrails right now. What he’s really saying is that UK won’t play in the legal gray areas that other schools are using to land players. NIL rules are really messy, constantly shifting, and mostly unenforced, and many programs have decided to take advantage of that chaos. We are choosing not to. Barnhart is betting that the landscape will eventually get regulated, and schools that bent the rules will get burned later.

That leads to the frustration we all feel. It looks like every other program is buying rosters and operating however they please, while our program insists on a compliance-first strategy. There’s truth in that perception. Our NIL operation is heavily controlled, documented, and audited, while many schools let boosters, collectives, or third-party groups work in ways that are harder to trace. Those programs can throw out faster, bigger deals and take recruiting swings that we won’t touch because the offers might not hold up under future rules.

So the issue isn’t that Mitch is afraid for no reason. It’s that his caution carries real competitive cost right now. He wants long-term protection, fewer risks, and a clean reputation when federal or NCAA enforcement eventually tightens. But that comes at the price of losing some battles in the current arms race. Whether that tradeoff is smart depends on what comes next: if regulators crack down, Barnhart looks ahead of the curve. If they don’t, UK risks being “right” but irrelevant.

The truth sits in the middle. Mitch isn’t wrong to want stability, but winning in the NIL era still requires aggression. Our program has to prove it can stay compliant and competitive, not hide behind rules no one else cares about.

Very fair post!

 

[Verbal Kint II]

There is a push to move NIL away from pay to play to true business transactions. (This is exclusive of the new revenue sharing.) That is a great thing. So deals over $600 are supposed to go through NILGo system for approval. NIL is to be reviewed for legitimate business purpose and appropriate market value. When initially setup by Deloitte and the College sports Commission (I think) Deloitte stated around 70% of external “collective” deals were not meeting requirements. I think a lot of these external collectives deals have historically required very little of the athlete to get paid large amounts. Now to comply with NILGo you have to basically get a business to pay the athlete for a service and it has to be a reasonable payment according to some market value algorithm. I’m sure that is much more difficult to get large amounts approved. Some schools that use external collectives are frustrated and doing deals and allegedly forgoing NILGo. So now some are apparently getting deals/money to athletes quicker than those complying with NILGo. See link below for a discussion.

Collectives Abandon NIL Go - Front Office Sports

frontofficesports.com

The JMI deal according to comments from JMI, appears to use JMI to monitor NIL deals for compliance at UK including external collectives. JMI claims that they bring UK access to its business partners and will provide easier access to NIL deals. See the link below:

University of Kentucky and JMI Sports Announce BBNIL Suite to Streamline the NIL Experience for Student-Athletes and Partners

New integrated NIL collaborative strengthens UK’s recruiting tools, brand growth, and student-athlete support

www.jmisports.com

UK has stated it does not preclude athletes from external collectives but implies using the in-house collective is strongly preferred.

So if some schools are just doing NIL deals through their external collectives and not running through NILGo what is their risk? They evidently believe getting recruits the money is worth the risk. I would guess this is what Mitch is referring to. that UK won’t do. I would also guess JMI will not approve any collective deal on behalf of a UK athlete that won’t meet NILGo in their opinion or hasn’t been submitted to NILGo. Risk monitoring function by JMI.

This has ZERO impact on this current BB team as some will try to say people are claiming. But look at the reports that NIL is holding up Collins recruiting. Is that a JMI deal issue or a Pope issue? Nobody can say for sure.

There is a belief that UK and JMI felt Congress was going to pass the SCORE Act which would have brought some certainty to NIL monitoring/approval etc. But Congress will not bring SCORE to a vote because they don’t have the votes to pass.

Mitch’s reaction to a rather benign question by the LHL was odd. There are some legit questions and that doesn’t make those asking a puppet being manipulated. Things are continually evolving & the contract is 15 years so there is concern will UK be locked in or can the contract adapt with changes. If nothing reels in the actions of collectives, UK will have to respond accordingly.

Hopefully this works out for UK. You have to feel Will Stein would have gotten real comfortable with this before coming on board. So there’s that.

Sorry for the novel.

JMI monitors and does compliance for the BBNIL Suite deals. They have no control over anyone’s else’s NIL deal. It is against state law for anyone to prohibit an athletes legal NIL deal. It is also illegal to force a players to use a schools in house NIL program. Players can do any NIL deal
they want without JMI approval unless it violates state law or NCAA rules.

 

[Verbal Kint II]

What do people mean by saying you are a JMI “mole”? I like your posts about this topic as I usually find you end up with some of the same conclusions I have, but mine are based on inferences and listening closely to others involved in the deal. Do you have any involvement with JMI? I’d not consider that to make you less credible but potentially more credible on this topic, but I’d like to know what biases you work from.

I don’t care about credibility from anyone. I encourage people to do basic research of every claim, then base their opinions on the facts that they gathered.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

I don’t care about credibility from anyone. I encourage people to do basic research of every claim, then base their opinions on the facts that they gathered.

I respect that and encourage the same. Do you work for JMI?

 

[Verbal Kint II]

I respect that and encourage the same. Do you work for JMI?

No

 

[Tim0808]

I don’t pretend to know what it is but there is some damn reason we can’t close a single meaningful recruiting deal. Mark Pope is not bad enough with people or bad enough evaluating talent as he would need to be otherwise. He simply isn’t.

I’ll believe pro wrestling is real before I’ll believe Mark Pope started out with twenty-two million dollars he could spend any way he wanted to and wound up with (no offense) this roster.

I think there are a lot of issues. Mitch, Contract, Pressure, etc... but I also believe Pope is part of the problem too. I do not think he relates to the players. It is hard for me to listen to him talk. He is almost as bad as listening to Kamala or Trump talk.

 

[lordvoldemort123]

No

It’s clear that this individual has ties to JMI, the Athletic Department, or Mitch. Right now, there is no one advocating for or defending JMI in its current deal with Kentucky. Unlike other programs that have negotiated flexibility into their NIL agreements, Kentucky and JMI are locked into rigid terms. The only upside is that this deal runs through 2040 (eyeroll), giving us a definitive point to move on.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

It’s clear that this individual has ties to JMI, the Athletic Department, or Mitch. Right now, there is no one advocating for or defending JMI in its current deal with Kentucky. Unlike other programs that have negotiated flexibility into their NIL agreements, Kentucky and JMI are locked into rigid terms. The only upside is that this deal runs through 2040 (eyeroll), giving us a definitive point to move on.

I don’t personally defend the deal. I’m in a wait and see approach but that guy did have some good points that I think were fair. Someone said they are a JMI mole and I don’t know that, but based on their answers, they don’t seem to be reliant on any inside information. I’d imagine they are simply listening closest to Matt himself. I listen to KSR radio show almost every day and I’ve come to many of the same conclusions Verbal Kint did simply by putting two and two together. If you let people talk, they will tell the truth on themselves. We can revisit this in ten years, because NO ONE knows how this deal will work out at all right now.

 

[Verbal Kint II]

It’s clear that this individual has ties to JMI, the Athletic Department, or Mitch. Right now, there is no one advocating for or defending JMI in its current deal with Kentucky. Unlike other programs that have negotiated flexibility into their NIL agreements, Kentucky and JMI are locked into rigid terms. The only upside is that this deal runs through 2040 (eyeroll), giving us a definitive point to move on.

I’m advocating for the truth. You seem to be against the truth and want to muddy the waters to hurt UK and NIL at UK. You all can no longer lie and claim JMI controls all of UKs NIL because it’s been disproven, so now you’re repeating the flexibility and bottleneck talking point that
came from the same person. Maybe you work for JMI since you have details on these “flexibility” issues that none of you can explain.

 

[UKortho]

I respect that and encourage the same. Do you work for JMI?

He is by far the worst poster/person/thing that has ever graced Rupp’s Rafters.

 

[I’m The Village Idiot]

He is by far the worst poster/person/thing that has ever graced Rupp’s Rafters.

I’m not advocating for him as a poster. Just think he’s landed in a fair place on this topic. I do not support the personal attacks he uses —- never needed in intellectual discussion. I will say it is difficult to hold minority view on this website though. And yes, I vehemently disagree with some of his other views. I think he’s closer to correct on reading the tea leaves on this topic.

 

[BlueSince92]

He is almost as bad as listening to Kamala or Trump talk.

That’s awesome

 

[Woodrow24]

I wish someone in the media would interview a sports agent and put out an article on it. Even if they make them an anonymous source, I would like to hear their opinions on dealing with these companies that are involved with NIL for these athletic programs.