Kentucky AD receives extension through 2022

According to Jennifer Smith of kentucky.com, it was announced last night that University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart will remain as the school’s top athletics administrator through June 30, 2022.

Originally, Barnhart signed the deal on March 18, but Gus Ramsey, Kentucky’s director of strategic communications, said he wasn’t sure why the contract amendment didn’t become public knowledge until nearly four months later.

Barnhart’s salary will jump from $730,000 to $840,000 beginning in 2019. From there, he will be receiving annual increases, making $880,000 in 2020 and $925,000 in 2021.

Barnhart, 56, will be 63-years-old once this contract concludes. If he is fired before 2019, he will receive $925,000. If Barnhart gets fired after June 30, 2019, he will receive a $550,000 payout.

Most recently, Barnhart became a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee earlier this year, for the next five years. He is also a member of the Division I Council and chairman of the NCAA’s Competition Oversight Committee.

He also serves on the SEC Network Content Committee and has been on the NCAA’s Baseball Committee. In June, Barnhart became one of four people to earn the Division I athletics director of the year award.

According to Smith’s article, “When asked in 2012 whether he was thinking about retirement, Barnhart said, ‘I don’t think the job here is done yet. … I’ll know in my mind when it’s time to turn the keys over to someone else. My goal when I got here was to build this place so that when I left it, the next person didn’t have to start from where we had to start in terms of facilities and support.'”