Mitch Barnhart

Mitch Barnhart is the athletics 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 March 2016 Barnhart signed an extension on his contract which will keep him at Kentucky until 2022.

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

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:

• Greg Byrne of Alabama
• Mark Coyle at Minnesota
• Rob Mullens at Oregon
• Scott Stricklin at Florida
• John Cohen at Mississippi State