You can talk in circles all you want, you simply want an AD who will allow cheating and breaking NCAA rules. Again, Mitch Barnhart isn't against collectives, Mitch Barnhart is against collectives being involved in the recruiting process because it is against NCAA rules. Touting collectives in recruiting is again, 100% against the rules. No word salad will change what the NCAA rules say.
Mitch was hired in 2002. He underfunded the Football team for 10 years, until he had to fire Jocker. No one can deny that.Mitch Barnhart "ran the program into the ground." After all those 10 win seasons, we had under Larry Ivy and CM Newton, Mitch came in and ran the program into the ground.
I remember Bill Currys 7 years as a kid and teenager. We topped 4 wins one time in 7 years and had a 1-10 season. Hal Mumme came in, had the greatest QB and WR in program history, then cheated his ass off to go 20-26 over 4 years including a 2 win season. Mitch came in and ruined all of that.
Somebody que up Glory Days so we can sing and reminence about the days when we were respected in the SEC.
Mitch Barnhart can't just do capital projects as he pleases. Projects that large require bonding because theyre so expensive, the school only has so much bonding capacity and they used it on the hospital back in those days. Everyone knows this, yet you guys continue to lie and act like it isn't a thing, "he underfunded the football program".Mitch was hired in 2002. He underfunded the Football team for 10 years, until he had to fire Jocker. No one can deny that.
Mitch drove the program into the ground so hard that less than 14,000 fans showed up in a 70,000 seat stadium. He used those funds to build up his precious Olympic sports for 10 years at the sole expense of the football program.
Those are facts.
Ed knows nothing.Donations to the program? LOL, we have a nearly $150 million budget and stopped relying on donations to the program long ago.
Mitch was hired in 2002. He underfunded the Football team for 10 years, until he had to fire Jocker. No one can deny that.
I don't know what a scale of 8-9 is. Thats like saying on a 1-10 scale how faithful are you to your wife. You either are or you aren't. The rules are clear, written out, and are black and white. There is no scale of following the rules, you're either following the rules, or you're cheating and not following the rules.When was Joker named “head coach in waiting?” I don’t know if that was before Mitch began. If not, it was at the very beginning of his tenure. This strategy was in vogue, but didn’t last very long for a good reason.
I don’t know enough details regarding his first 5 years to comment intelligently.
I don’t care if Stoops and Cal were forced on Mitch. (I don’t think they were!) I give Mitch credit for the current state of UK athletics. I also give him credit for having a moral compass.
@Magilla thinks i advocate cheating or am talking in circles. I think my statements are clear.
If NIL was on 1-10 scale with 10 being the threshold for cheating then I fully acknowledge some programs are operating between 11-12. I think most SEC schools are functioning between 8-9. Stoops wants UK to be in the 8-9 range. I think Mitch wants to operate in the 5-6 range. The fact our football and basketball coaches had to go around Mitch just to get Beshear just to get our current law tells me they don’t like Mitch’s current stance. (This is clear fact known by many.
@Magilla Gorilla, on 1-10 scale, where do you think Stoops wants us to be? Where do you want UK to be? Where do you think Mitch wants UK to be?
I agree with this statement 110% and do not want UK to be part of cheating. (This was my ’off the scale’ analogy.)3rd parties are not allowed to be involved in the recruiting process. You are not allowed to say to a PSA (recruit) that we have a collective and this is what they will pay you or this is the money they have for you. Its just not allowed, if you want to do that, you want to cheat. The NCAA even reiterated and emphasized that was not allowed.
Went around him for what? Kentucky state law falls in line with NCAA guidelines onNIL. Kentucky state law literally prohibits schools from promising NIL money to a recruit. You know, Mitch Barnharts stance on NIL, it falls in line with state law and NCAA guidelines.I agree with this statement 110% and do not want UK to be part of cheating. (This was my ’off the scale’ analogy.)
BTW - I’m guessing we would agree on 90% of things related to sports and I have no desire to argue. I only ask the questions because you seem knowledgeable about UK athletics.
Do you think Stoops and Cal went around Mitch to get Ky’s state law changed about NIL?
Do you think Stoops is pleased with Mitch’s position related to NIL?
Ky did not have a law until Cal & Stoops got Beshear to issue an executive order. This order is now approved and state law. This lack of law initially put UK behind other states and their universities. Coaches felt Mitch was dragging his feet on this law and hurting recruiting.No matter what Matt Jones says or other message board posters say, the law is clear, NCAA guidelines are clear. It is illegal for an institution an association or an affiliated organization to give or promise compensation for name image and likeness in the recruiting process. Collectives absolutely can not promise recruits, "This is what we has for you if you sign."
I'm not exactly sure what Mitch Barnhart is not allowing that you guys want him to if you're not talking about cheating.
My biggest problem with mitch is the support he gave the money cow his first ten years here, NOTHING extra for football while our competition in the SEC was loading up. Do you think the SEC's flood of money from football TV was caused by UK's TWO two win seasons and the five years without a bowl game or by the OTHER SEC schools that gave football the support it had earned? And there is no doubt in my mind that the killing of UK football was entirely due to the non-support he gave it his first ten years at UK while he used the money it had earned to pursue his precious cup, only behind two other SEC schools and eight nationally now, whoopee. Was it worth the destruction of the money cow, I have always claimed he would have had MORE money for the non-revenue sports IF he had given football the money it had EARNED. How much money did football lose in ticket sales, donations, bowl games etc from football coming in third for TWO years in the small state of Kentucky.I keep hoping for a post on Mitch that isn't biased one way or the other. Usually they are either overly positive or negative compared to the facts. Your post comes across as biased against him. You repeat the "had little to do with hiring Cal" myth that has been debunked a thousand times on this board. Mike Pratt himself has told the story of how Cal was hired several times. That story contradicts the Mitch had little to do with it propaganda. Then you go on to say that he shouldn't get credit for hiring Stoops because he solicited UK. That view is so preposterous I don't know where to begin. First, anyone who has hired anyone knows that the majority of the time the candidate you end up hiring is not someone you targeted. It it usually someone who applied for the job that you didn't know. Interviewing people and trying discern which candidate is going to bring the most value to your business is what successful managers do. Many of those people are not people you are familiar with prior to the interview. He absolutely gets credit for interviewing a variety of candidates and recognizing that Stoops was right for the job and hiring him. He also gets credit for sticking with him when others would not have.
He has made some bad hires, but again, anyone who has hired people over time has made bad hires. It's not as easy as it might appear. I also think the contract extension for Cal was a bad move. Time will tell on that but I think those types of contracts removes the motivation to work hard. I have no idea if he is managing NIL well or not. I doubt most on here do in spite of the constant speculation on the subject. People read a lot of things into what is said that isn't really there. I have always thought NIL would be bad for UK, well managed or not. We are a small market team. When money is the driving force behind who gets the best players and coaches, small market teams generally don't fair well. But again time will tell.
The overall quality of the athletic programs at UK speak for themselves. It was one of worst athletic departments in the SEC before he arrived and now it is one of the best. That's hard to argue with. The football program, that I truly love, and have had season tickets for the last 35 years, is performing better than it has since the Bear was roaming the sidelines. Again, that speaks for itself.
Overall, he is easily the best AD UK has had during my lifetime. Now that is a low bar. We haven't had very good ones in my opinion. I think he is probably one of the top ADs in the country based on the performance of the athletic department when he took compared to how it is performing today. I doubt many have shown the kind of improvement ours have. Does he have flaws. Absolutely. But everyone has flaws. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. But overall we have a very good AD and there are no guarantees his replacement will be able to maintain his success. I guess my point is we shouldn't take him for granted because he has done a very good job for us and has kept us clean in the process.
Excellent post.To Mitch's defense, I'm guessing he knew NCAA was getting ready to go after "pay for play" which they announced today. Mitch (along with most presidents and AD's) want "pay for play" out, and want to use NIL to reward existing players on the roster.
My take ...
1) I posted months ago I think P-5 pulls football out of NCAA. (I think this happens quicker than we think.)
2) NCAA is not going to bust a P-5 school for pay-for-play. Today's news is smoke and bluster. P5 schools will ignore NCAA until they pull away. NCAA would have to punish 90% of schools. (Cleveland State better keep their nose clean!)
3) Conferences will align based on their NIL agreements. Again, I think most of them don't want what is currently taking place.
4) Mitch and UK sports must go full throttle with collectives (NIL) until the SEC makes everyone play by the same rules.
There is nothing to be gained for being able to say, "we used NIL the way it was intended and not like everyone else."
I do not advocate cheating, but the current NIL lines are too blurry. I don't even think they're grey. UK should not stand on it's own self-created high ground while everyone else plays by a different set of rules.
The business world calls this "disrupters." NIL is a classic "disrupter." Early adopters usually win the game. I fully support playing by the rules/laws as they adapt. However, few rules/laws exist during the early stage of disruption. Few actual rules/laws currently exist with NIL.
Other than capital projects, and probably not all of them, I think that's true.Donations to the program? LOL, we have a nearly $150 million budget and stopped relying on donations to the program long ago.
It's a point we have discussed many times. I have said before, I don't think you understand the difference between capital and O&M. UK did not allow investment in the football stadium or practice facilities because they were large dollar projects and their bonding capacity was being used for the hospital. About all of the capital money UK spent on athletics during the hospital years were small projects that they could cover through donations. Our AD said numerous times publicly that football would get it's money when the hospital project was finished and capital was freed up. He was very up front about what was going on and yet people ignored what he was saying for some reason. Would UK's football program taken off sooner if it had had capital money for facilities improvement earlier? Maybe. Maybe not. Stoops is a big part of why we have risen. But it's moot point because UK didn't have the bonding capacity and MB didn't have donations that would pay for it without bonding. Trying to blame the AD for a bonding issue associated with the university building a billion dollar hospital doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.My biggest problem with mitch is the support he gave the money cow his first ten years here, NOTHING extra for football while our competition in the SEC was loading up. Do you think the SEC's flood of money from football TV was caused by UK's TWO two win seasons and the five years without a bowl game or by the OTHER SEC schools that gave football the support it had earned? And there is no doubt in my mind that the killing of UK football was entirely due to the non-support he gave it his first ten years at UK while he used the money it had earned to pursue his precious cup, only behind two other SEC schools and eight nationally now, whoopee. Was it worth the destruction of the money cow, I have always claimed he would have had MORE money for the non-revenue sports IF he had given football the money it had EARNED. How much money did football lose in ticket sales, donations, bowl games etc from football coming in third for TWO years in the small state of Kentucky.
"They sposed to be SEC".
Excellent post.
Nice post, but the players that A&M, and THUG U have signed are NOT going to change schools when and IF the SLOW NCAA finally tries to enforce the rules.Lot to unpack there. There have been many threads on this subject. You bring up some new points. My view is that Barnhart is fully engaged, analytical, careful, and understands the liabilities better than we do. We are observers. It is Barnhart's job to keep Kentucky's athletic programs clean and free of trouble. At this, he has been skillful to say the least. That is what the Board wants, and that is what he does.
I do not want my school to cheat, and I do not want any more NCAA investigations. We can find all shades of opinions on that, but the saddest days in the history of Kentucky sports were the "Kentucky shame" years. Bruce Pearl is a disruptor. Pearl got fired for cheating at Tennesee of all places, and his former assistant Chuck Person was recently convicted in federal court. Will Wade is a disruptor. Phil Fulmer and Tom Jurich were disruptors. Just saying. I like having clean programs, and I don't see a problem. We could revisit this in December after Kentucky's football class signs. By then, we will have more data points.
So, you think a recruiting budget the same or less for 25 recruits vs the one for 5 or so is just fine? The recruiting room with the corner of a warehouse, the concrete floors, folding chairs, the folding projection screen vs BB's facilities were just fine? FACTS for you. The nearby city college recruits were making fun of our facilities, and who could disagree with them?It's a point we have discussed many times. I have said before, I don't think you understand the difference between capital and O&M. UK did not allow investment in the football stadium or practice facilities because they were large dollar projects and their bonding capacity was being used for the hospital. About all of the capital money UK spent on athletics during the hospital years were small projects that they could cover through donations. Our AD said numerous times publicly that football would get it's money when the hospital project was finished and capital was freed up. He was very up front about what was going on and yet people ignored what he was saying for some reason. Would UK's football program taken off sooner if it had had capital money for facilities improvement earlier? Maybe. Maybe not. Stoops is a big part of why we have risen. But it's moot point because UK didn't have the bonding capacity and MB didn't have donations that would pay for it without bonding. Trying to blame the AD for a bonding issue associated with the university building a billion dollar hospital doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
You can in Tennessee, its state law. You need to come to a basic understanding. NIL will never be punished by the NCAA. You'll have a handful of idiotic schools like UK who self report like a boot licking hall monitor, the rest will ignore the money flow.I don't know what a scale of 8-9 is. Thats like saying on a 1-10 scale how faithful are you to your wife. You either are or you aren't. The rules are clear, written out, and are black and white. There is no scale of following the rules, you're either following the rules, or you're cheating and not following the rules.
3rd parties are not allowed to be involved in the recruiting process. You are not allowed to say to a PSA (recruit) that we have a collective and this is what they will pay you or this is the money they have for you. Its just not allowed, if you want to do that, you want to cheat. The NCAA even reiterated and emphasized that was not allowed.
I call it evening the playing field.No matter what Matt Jones says or other message board posters say, the law is clear, NCAA guidelines are clear. It is illegal for an institution an association or an affiliated organization to give or promise compensation for name image and likeness in the recruiting process. Collectives absolutely can not promise recruits, "This is what we has for you if you sign."
I'm not exactly sure what Mitch Barnhart is not allowing that you guys want him to if you're not talking about cheating.
Yes, but not the major one, the major one was giving more support to the BB team with 13 players when football has 85 players AND makes a lot more money, And the lack of support for football his first ten years was only too obvious with very predictable results. But almost all of our fans seem very happy with the TWO two win seasons.You can in Tennessee, its state law. You need to come to a basic understanding. NIL will never be punished by the NCAA. You'll have a handful of idiotic schools like UK who self report like a boot licking hall monitor, the rest will ignore the money flow.
The NCAA can't do anything about it because if they try they will be immediately dragged into a class action suit for limiting the full value of players NIL. The NCAA would lose badly.
This is why Barney is a moron, well, a primary reason at the moment.
What an amazing post. Bravo!When was Joker named “head coach in waiting?” I don’t know if that was before Mitch began. If not, it was at the very beginning of his tenure. This strategy was in vogue, but didn’t last very long for a good reason.
I don’t know enough details regarding his first 5 years to comment intelligently.
I don’t care if Stoops and Cal were forced on Mitch. (I don’t think they were!) I give Mitch credit for the current state of UK athletics. I also give him credit for having a moral compass.
@Magilla thinks i advocate cheating or am talking in circles. I think my statements are clear.
If NIL was on 1-10 scale with 10 being the threshold for cheating then I fully acknowledge some programs are operating between 11-12. I think most SEC schools are functioning between 8-9. Stoops wants UK to be in the 8-9 range. I think Mitch wants to operate in the 5-6 range. The fact our football and basketball coaches had to go around Mitch just to get Beshear just to get our current law tells me they don’t like Mitch’s current stance. (This is clear fact known by many.
@Magilla Gorilla, on 1-10 scale, where do you think Stoops wants us to be? Where do you want UK to be? Where do you think Mitch wants UK to be?
Who paid for the $40,000,000 football facility? Why did our AD have to borrow $120,000,000 dollars for the NECESSARY stadium, improvements AND why did they have to borrow another $60,000,000 to give to academics in order to get the loan? IF the OTHER SEC programs hadn't been about ten years ahead of us and started throwing us unbelievable amounts of money we would have had hell paying the $120,000,000M back, let alone the $60,000,000, in extortion money.Other than capital projects, and probably not all of them, I think that's true.
Ky did not have a law until Cal & Stoops got Beshear to issue an executive order. This order is now approved and state law. This lack of law initially put UK behind other states and their universities. Coaches felt Mitch was dragging his feet on this law and hurting recruiting.
You ask "what do I want Mitch to do?" It is simple for me. I want him to accept that NIL is a new part of college sports. I also want him to embrace it and be a pioneer for creative ways to leverage NIL to strengthen UK football/basketball. You have to admit there's a major difference between "Our players are available to help you advertise your business" and an AD who embraces NIL, proactively makes calls to potential business owners, and seeks creative ways to involve small business owners and even individuals.
In fairness, Mitch may currently be doing everything he can do to help Stoops/Cals recruit. However, I don't think it was the case this spring. Mitch's response to NIL will determine how he finishes his tenure as our AD. I hope he finishes strong!
What major projects were bonded for basketball during the same period?Nice post, but the players that A&M, and THUG U have signed are NOT going to change schools when and IF the SLOW NCAA finally tries to enforce the rules.
So, you think a recruiting budget the same or less for 25 recruits vs the one for 5 or so is just fine? The recruiting room with the corner of a warehouse, the concrete floors, folding chairs, the folding projection screen vs BB's facilities were just fine? FACTS for you. The nearby city college recruits were making fun of our facilities, and who could disagree with them?
What has capital and O&M got to do with the vast difference in the support for the two sports, especially when despite the HUGE discrepancy in the NON-support football in 2010 (in the middle of our AD's starvation support) cleared $18,000,000 vs the program with the best support in the nation only clearing about $5,000,000.
Capital and O&M BS, what has that got to do with the incredible support difference between the money cow and the program our AD was afraid to touch? A good politician, I will give him that, but I hate politicians.
Please explain how he did that?Mitch was hired in 2002. He underfunded the Football team for 10 years, until he had to fire Jocker. No one can deny that.
Mitch drove the program into the ground so hard that less than 14,000 fans showed up in a 70,000 seat stadium. He used those funds to build up his precious Olympic sports for 10 years at the sole expense of the football program.
Those are facts.
Imagine wanting to be like dirty lowlife programs like Tennessee and Louisville.You can in Tennessee, its state law. You need to come to a basic understanding. NIL will never be punished by the NCAA. You'll have a handful of idiotic schools like UK who self report like a boot licking hall monitor, the rest will ignore the money flow.
The NCAA can't do anything about it because if they try they will be immediately dragged into a class action suit for limiting the full value of players NIL. The NCAA would lose badly.
This is why Barney is a moron, well, a primary reason at the moment.
I guess my question would be how do you know what Mitch is doing behind the scenes? You are making a lot of assumptions without any direct knowledge. I do know UK announced a NIL clearinghouse where businesses can list their information and student athletes can list their contact information so they can connect to each other for NIL projects. That seems to be a very good mechanism for connecting people who want sponsor NIL deals with student athletes.Ky did not have a law until Cal & Stoops got Beshear to issue an executive order. This order is now approved and state law. This lack of law initially put UK behind other states and their universities. Coaches felt Mitch was dragging his feet on this law and hurting recruiting.
You ask "what do I want Mitch to do?" It is simple for me. I want him to accept that NIL is a new part of college sports. I also want him to embrace it and be a pioneer for creative ways to leverage NIL to strengthen UK football/basketball. You have to admit there's a major difference between "Our players are available to help you advertise your business" and an AD who embraces NIL, proactively makes calls to potential business owners, and seeks creative ways to involve small business owners and even individuals.
In fairness, Mitch may currently be doing everything he can do to help Stoops/Cals recruit. However, I don't think it was the case this spring. Mitch's response to NIL will determine how he finishes his tenure as our AD. I hope he finishes strong!
How is it dirty. I just told you Tennessee has a state law for it.Imagine wanting to be like dirty lowlife programs like Tennessee and Louisville.
The NCAA probably doesn't have the balls for this, but just because state law says something is legal doesn't mean it's not a violation of NCAA rules and a school can do it and remain eligible for post season play. In other words, I don't think state law can dictate NCAA rules. That's not to say some NCAA rules can't be determined to be illegal, but I don't think a state can pass any law they want to give their teams an advantage and still have them be eligible for post season play. Lots of things are legal but against NCAA rules. The question is does the NCAA have the nads to enforce their rules? Many are skeptical that they do.How is it dirty. I just told you Tennessee has a state law for it.
That first sentence isn't necessarily true. It's complicated but many times state law can override NCAA regulations. Does the NCAA have the balls for that fight, obviously not or they wouldn't have capitulated to NIL the way they did.The NCAA probably doesn't have the balls for this, but just because state law says something is legal doesn't mean it's not a violation of NCAA rules and a school can do it and remain eligible for post season play. In other words, I don't think state law can dictate NCAA rules. That's not to say some NCAA rules can't be determined to be illegal, but I don't think a state can pass any law they want to give their teams an advantage and still have them be eligible for post season play. Lots of things are legal but against NCAA rules. The question is does the NCAA have the nads to enforce their rules? Many are skeptical that they do.
That's an interesting article. Thanks for posting it.That first sentence isn't necessarily true. It's complicated but many times state law can override NCAA regulations. Does the NCAA have the balls for that fight, obviously not or they wouldn't have capitulated to NIL the way they did.
Harvard JSEL
harvardjsel.com
Complicated isn't it. Its a mess the NCAA has no stomach for at this point.That's an interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
I'm not an attorney, but some of the arguments seems rather shallow, so I wonder exactly how state law and private organization rules interact. For example, Sagers argument is that California's law imposes no obligations on the NCAA in other states like the Nevada law did so it would stand where the Nevada law was overturned. That's simply not true. If California law could force the NCAA to allow players to be paid by third parties and those players must by law remain eligible to play, but in other states they can't, then the NCAA would be forced to change its rules in other states to effectively govern its member institutions. It's really no different than the reasoning behind overturning the Nevada law. Or at least it looks that way to me as a jailhouse lawyer, lol.
The article really doesn't address my question. Paying a player has never been illegal but it has been against NCAA rules and would cause the player to not be eligible and the school to perhaps not be eligible for post season play. There are a host of other rules schools and players must abide by to be eligible. None of which are illegal. So legality does not dictate NCAA rules. My question is why couldn't the NCAA just say if you want to pay players in California, fine, but we will ban your schools from post season play because it is a violation of our rules. We aren't saying you can't do that, but we are saying if you do, your school will not participate in post season tournaments because it is a violation of our rules. I'm not saying that's the path they should have gone down. It's more a consideration of where we are now. Paying a player to sign a national letter of intent isn't against the law in many places. I think some states included that in their state law so it would be in some states. But what would prevent the NCAA from preventing any team that pays players to sign from playing in the post season. They aren't stopping the practice, they are just saying it makes the team ineligible to compete. I wish someone would discuss how far a state can go to dictate NCAA rules. Perhaps it's a very grey area. It's bad policy in my opinion if a state can dictate the rules governing a private voluntary organization. Why doesn't Kentucky pass a law that we can pay players directly, they don't have to be academically eligible to play, they have 6 years of eligibility, etc? It would certainly give us a competitive advantage.