No more Barnhart...no Golden parachute...the J Batt era begins, as the former AD at Michigan State moves into Barnhart’s position and takes over as CEO of Champions Blue. For the majority of his 24 years in Lexington, Barnhart only spoke once annually, providing a healthy dose of nonsense and B.S. and sometimes would snap, giving aggrieved Kentucky fans fuel: “I’m confident that (Stoops) loves his place. He’s the all-time winningest coach here, and that’s saying something. There’s been a lot of people who tried hard here and couldn’t sustain it and couldn’t work at it,” Barnhart told the Herald-Leader’s Jon Hale. “There’s a reason Mitch only talked once a year.” When he steered off the script, it didn’t take much to step in it. When Barnhart quickly moved on from Mark Stoops and hired Will Stein, the introductory press conference was supposed to be a day of celebration. At one point, someone asked the Kentucky AD if Stein had enough financial support to be successful. “We’re confident in what we’re doing. People ask that question 19 different ways with all that stuff that’s been going on, and it’s exhausting. Enough. Enough about, ‘Have we got enough?’ We’ve got enough. After announcing his retirement in March, we learned that Mitch was getting a new gig at the school as the “Executive in Residence for the UK Sports and Workforce Initiative.” “All I’ve ever done in my life is work, so this notion that this golden parachute is falling from the ceiling and I’m going to sit in the rocking chair and eat hay is ridiculous garbage.” In the weeks that followed, more and more became skeptical of Barnhart’s role. Pressure from prominent donors, the media, and the Governor ultimately eradicated the golden parachute as Barnhart and UK agreed to part ways without the $7-figure post retirement job. Now....about Eli...
July 1, 2026: A day that will live in infamy...It’s a day to celebrate a new dawn...the end is here...FINALLY...
- Thread starter WildcatWally-77
- Start date
T minus 15 minutes
don’t let the door hit ya on your way out
don’t let the door hit ya on your way out
UK has had some all time blunders. Not hiring Scnellenburger. Not firing Tubby and letting Pitino go to UL instead of coming back. Keeping 5 years too late, scared of his own shadow, NCAA poster boy Barnhart for 20 plus years tops them all. We were heading towards Indiana basketball. Glad the BOT finally forced him out. Now, as the OP said. What about ELI? The corruption should need to be accounted for.
Mitch is the best AD we've had for all the non revenue sports but nobody really cares about those. He was horrible for basketball as he hired BCG and Pope and gave Cal that stupid lifetime contract that made him feel even more entitled than he already was and killed any drive to keep pushing forward. Cal pretty much retired as soon as he signed that contract. Stoops was a good hire but it was clear things were going south towards the end and when he tried to leave for TxAM, MB should've found a way to show Stoops the door.
I still rate the Schnellenberger non-hire the worst. What could have followed could have been much superior to what did.
Barnhart is 24 years of incompetence wrapped in an Olympic sports packaging. Everything an SEC AD is supposed to do; he failed. These slap dicks defending him just ignore the myriad of incompetence. UK made a ton of money from the SEC deals. Mitch blew it all on things that don’t matter.
