Mitch Barnhart

Mitch Barnhart (born August 27, 1959) is an American college athletics administrator. He is the athletic director for the Kentucky Wildcats athletics program at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Barnhart was hired by the university in 2002 succeeding Larry Ivy. Barnhart served in the same capacity at Oregon State University from 1998 to 2002. He is the university's tenth athletics director. In August 2023 Barnhart signed an extension on his contract which will keep him at Kentucky until 2028. On March 3, 2026, Barnhart announced that he would retire at the end of June.

Education Barnhart received his Bachelor of Arts from Ottawa University and a Master of Science in sports administration from Ohio University.

Tenure at Kentucky Barnhart is currently the longest serving AD in the SEC. For the 2016–17 school year, Kentucky athletics finished 10th nationally in the NACDA Directors' Cup, more than 100 student-athletes graduating, and finishing five straight years with an average GPA of over 3.0.

As of 2017, several coaches and administrators who have worked under Barnhart at Kentucky are now serving as athletic directors at other universities, including: Emails from June 2012 also revealed that Mark Howard, a former assistant swimming coach at the University of Toledo, informed both Barnhart and Gary Conelly, who at time served as University of Kentucky's head swim coach, that Jorgensen was accused of being involved in a sexual relationship with a female student he coached while employed at the University of Toledo.