Kentucky insider definitively states AD Mitch Barnhart is in his final season with Wildcats

Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, who is the University’s 10th AD, is in his 23rd year at the helm. In that time, Barnhart has hired multiple successful coaches at the University, including Volleyball National Champion Craig Skinner, Basketball National Champion John Calipari, and Kentucky Football’s winningest head coach in program history, Mark Stoops.

However, Barnhart’s tenure could soon be coming to an end. Kentucky Sports Radio‘s Matt Jones revealed the news on Wednesday’s edition of KSR and doubled down on the news on Thursday.

“I am more confident about this than I was yesterday,” Jones said. “This is Mitch’s last year. I just want that on the record. I think we’re gonna be getting a new Athletic Director at the end of the year. I don’t know that (when asked when Barnhart will retire), I can’t say when he’ll announce it. I just feel like that’s very, very likely. I think there’s lots of things that point to it, including a couple of things like… remember when he had a donation thing where he was donating so much for that complex that ends at the end of this year?

“Just a lot of stuff, that when talking to people, there’s a good chance there’s a new AD. And then the question will be ‘who is that?’ I think if you had to guess, it would be one of two people, which is either (DePaul Athletic Director) DeWayne Peevy or the guy who has his job now, Marc Hill. My guess is it’s one of those two guys and that consistency continues.”

If Barnhart were to decide to step down from the position, the University would pay him $800,000 per year as a special assistant to the president. This would then set off the first AD search at the University since 2002.

Peevy assumed multiple duties during his 12 years at Kentucky (2008-2020), but was elevated to Executive Associate Athletic Director in 2012. Some of these duties included overseeing the Kentucky Men’s Basketball program, supervising the chief financial officer, chief revenue office and executive associate athletics directors for internal and external operations (per DePaul‘s website).

“DeWayne is someone I trust wholeheartedly, to the point where he became the center of our scheduling and worked hand-in-hand with me on just about everything we do,” former Kentucky (now Arkansas) head coach John Calipari said when Peevy was hired at DePaul. “It made it so that he and I talked every day, oftentimes multiple times a day. DePaul will see quickly that DeWayne is a gatherer, a listener, a consensus builder and an idea man who gathers the right people in place to execute. I can’t wait to see what happens for the athletic department at DePaul and for DeWayne personally.”

Kentucky Deputy Athletics Director Marc Hill was also floated as a potential fit for the job by Jones. Hill has been with the University since 1999. He began his career as a strength coach, but quickly rose up the ranks as a sport administrator and finally as the Deputy AD, a role that he has assumed since 2019.