When will Mitch Barnhart be held accountable?

[Basil Cat]

*We still have compliance issues
*Botched hirings/firings/contracts
*Wrong side of NIL
*Gets offended at any fan feedback

Mitch has had more money flowing in than any AD in UK history. What do we have to show for it?
Is the athletic dept better than ever ? I would argue we have far underachieved based on available resources and support.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

 

[R.O.T.Muckinfush]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

When you make millions you get the blame. Who came up with it?

 

[TheBlueMist]

In an era of NIL, these violations seems antiquated.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

When you make millions you get the blame. Who came up with it?

Sure appears he does. I don't know who came up with the scheme, likely a friend that had a little authority said. "Hey guys here is how we can make a little free money, jut don't get greedy* but probably who was siging off on their hours..

 

[TM2013]

Dude is a dinosaur. Ned Flanders had a nice run but it's time for a new-age leader.

 

[Cobb4uk]

When you make millions you get the blame. Who came up with it?

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

Seems odd that, Grumpy, a Dawg fans takes the time to understand the situation and commented in a quality adult manner. I've had issues with Mitch in the past but you better watch what you wish for. Odd he gets high marks everywhere except but from many UK fans. The buck may stop with him but he can't control everything if he doesn't know.

 

[JrandoUK]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

He/UK could have at least fought it! Harbaugh n Michigan cheated openly with assistant stealing signs, going to other games wearing home teams gear to get on sidelines etc…
Michigan/NCAA suspends Coach 3-4 games😂😂😂No games vacated!!!
UT gets notice of NIL impropriety’s and are guilty as Heck, so they just say we’re filing lawsuit n NCAA said Ok we’re not pursuing your cheating anymore so carry on breaking the rules😂😂😂😂
UK, Mitch n Administration just bend over n take the wooping🤷🤷🤷

 

[Girthang]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

Exactly

 

[Girthang]

Seems odd that, Grumpy, a Dawg fans takes the time to understand the situation and commented in a quality adult manner. I've had issues with Mitch in the past but you better watch what you wish for. Odd he gets high marks everywhere except but from many UK fans. The buck may stop with him but he can't control everything if he doesn't know.

Well said

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

He/UK could have at least fought it! Harbaugh n Michigan cheated openly with assistant stealing signs, going to other games wearing home teams gear to get on sidelines etc…
Michigan/NCAA suspends Coach 3-4 games😂😂😂No games vacated!!!
UT gets notice of NIL impropriety’s and are guilty as Heck, so they just say we’re filing lawsuit n NCAA said Ok we’re not pursuing your cheating anymore so carry on breaking the rules😂😂😂😂
UK, Mitch n Administration just bend over n take the wooping🤷🤷🤷

I agree, and who is to say he didn't? No real punishment, vacated wins. You know who won those games, the big thing is no post season ban and no scholarship reduction. Did ADMB accept the vacating games for no post season ban or scholarship reduction?

UK did nothing wrong here.

 

[Girthang]

He/UK could have at least fought it! Harbaugh n Michigan cheated openly with assistant stealing signs, going to other games wearing home teams gear to get on sidelines etc…
Michigan/NCAA suspends Coach 3-4 games😂😂😂No games vacated!!!
UT gets notice of NIL impropriety’s and are guilty as Heck, so they just say we’re filing lawsuit n NCAA said Ok we’re not pursuing your cheating anymore so carry on breaking the rules😂😂😂😂
UK, Mitch n Administration just bend over n take the wooping🤷🤷🤷

Nope. Not when the LHL is our enemy and providing the evidence. There's no other program in the country that has such an enemy invited into the room from every opportunity to screw the program. That's why I stopped clicking on anything LHL or buying anything of theirs over a decade ago.

 

[TM2013]

Seems odd that, Grumpy, a Dawg fans takes the time to understand the situation and commented in a quality adult manner. I've had issues with Mitch in the past but you better watch what you wish for. Odd he gets high marks everywhere except but from many UK fans. The buck may stop with him but he can't control everything if he doesn't know.

How many other p5 ADs/Athletic Depts are self reporting violations like we do? I haven't heard that weak garbage in a long time. Most other big time ADs are telling the NCAA to f off and definitely not voluntarily taking punishments like this. He is a dinosaur choir boy.

 

[R.O.T.Muckinfush]

So no one will be held accountable.... we don't know who did this? No one is held responsible? Horse sh*t. The outcome is just a plea bargain for self reporting. Could have been way worse. The program has been held responsible with vacated wins and probation. These players didn't cook up this scheme themselves. Some random rougue booster sounds a bit far fetched. They would pin it on them if so.

 

[JHB4UK]

Has done a lot of good, and a lot of frustrating decisions. The bottom line is he isn't an AD for power 2 conference school in the new era of college sports.

His mindset is of yesterday's era. where promoting revenue-negative sports over CFB and BBall was admired, where following the NCAA rules was more important than winning, and the idea of students getting paid or extra benefits is unfathomable and abhorrent. He commands academic admissions and eligibility to be followed as if we are a Harvard of the mid south. And who knows he is so unpopular by fans he has surrendered being a public voice for UK sports since Joker. So it is left as even more added job responsibilities by his head coaches instead.

More than ready for the next generation AD

 

[Snarks0]

stoops should be held accountable for this too. If wins are vacated he should have to pay back money he got for those wins.

 

[The-Hack]

Well said

Jesus!!

If we make a playoff run, some of our “fans” will go on suicide watch!!

 

[bthaunert]

*We still have compliance issues
*Botched hirings/firings/contracts
*Wrong side of NIL
*Gets offended at any fan feedback

Mitch has had more money flowing in than any AD in UK history. What do we have to show for it?
Is the athletic dept better than ever ? I would argue we have far underachieved based on available resources and support.

The whole funding and resources argument is always a funny one to me. Like we are the only school in the SEC that has increased revenue. We are 9th in the SEC in revenue. Throughout our history, we have probably always been a middle of the road SEC team in terms of revenue.

Mitch has his faults, but what do we have to show for middle of the pack revenue during Mitch’s tenure:

NCAA basketball title (4 final fours total)
Citrus Bowl win - best bowl win since the mid 70’s
Baseball college World Series
Volleyball national title
Women’s basketball 3 Elite Eights - best ever
Men’s soccer - #1 overall seed and best season ever
Women’s track and field NCAA runner up
Men’s tennis NCAA runner up
Women’s swimming - SEC title. - only one in school history
Softball - women’s college World Series

He gets blame for some bad hires (every AD who is around for 22 years makes them), some bad contracts and his inability to connect with the common fan. But to act like UK hasn’t had any success under him while still being middle of the pack in revenue is way off imo.

I also have no problem saying that the new era of college athletics is probably not for him. I’m ready for someone new to take the reigns, but he has done a lot of good here.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Has done a lot of good, and a lot of frustrating decisions. The bottom line is he isn't an AD for power 2 conference school in the new era of college sports.

His mindset is of yesterday's era. where promoting revenue-negative sports over CFB and BBall was admired, where following the NCAA rules was more important than winning, and the idea of students getting paid or extra benefits is unfathomable and abhorrent. He commands academic admissions and eligibility to be followed as if we are a Harvard of the mid south. And who knows he is so unpopular by fans he has surrendered being a public voice for UK sports since Joker. So it is left as even more added job responsibilities by his head coaches instead.

More than ready for the next generation AD

You may have nailed ADMB exactly. As an outsider it's easy to admire what he has done for. UK's athletic program. Competitive in every program, facility upgrades and the occasional bad hire, that happens. But as you said he doesn't appear comfortable dealing with NIL. Not sure how many ADs are. Maybe the future will see schools with co ADs, one in charge of facilities and personnel and one overseeing the NIL program, both appear to be full time jobs.

 

[Mulder14]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

A voice of reason, refreshing

 

[jeffky]

How many lifelines does mitch have at UK
Gillespie hire
Joker Phillips hire
Cal lifelong contract and the past 7 years of being irrelevant
Hates nil atmosphere
UK is now a gymnastics volleyball and baseball school
football has gotten better but very inconsistent seems like we have hit our ceiling

 

[megablue]

How many lifelines does mitch have at UK
Gillespie hire
Joker Phillips hire
Cal lifelong contract and the past 7 years of being irrelevant
Hates nil atmosphere
UK is now a gymnastics volleyball and baseball school
football has gotten better but very inconsistent seems like we have hit our ceiling

Not a fan of MB, at all, but do not forget track, tennis, soccer and golf. They have done impressive things.

 

[Gators1853]

You may have nailed ADMB exactly. As an outsider it's easy to admire what he has done for. UK's athletic program. Competitive in every program, facility upgrades and the occasional bad hire, that happens. But as you said he doesn't appear comfortable dealing with NIL. Not sure how many ADs are. Maybe the future will see schools with co ADs, one in charge of facilities and personnel and one overseeing the NIL program, both appear to be full time jobs.

Yes, as an outsider it is easy to admire the Cats, especially the improvement in their football program. For the first time in my life they actually seem to be serious about football as witnessed by their improvement in facilities. I was amazed at their stadium and practice facility when I visited.

All I know is UK is on a winning streak against the Gators and what once was a laughter of a game is an all out war now. And lately the Gators have been on the losing side. If the Cats go into Gainesville and pull out another win in October, the Gators may be the one looking for a new AD. And head coach.

NIL has changed the world of college athletics and it may be one of the reasons Saban hung it up at Bama. Who knows?

 

[Deeeefense]

I agree, and who is to say he didn't? No real punishment, vacated wins. You know who won those games, the big thing is no post season ban and no scholarship reduction. Did ADMB accept the vacating games for no post season ban or scholarship reduction?

UK did nothing wrong here.

That's essentially the opinion of people I listen to that are closer to things than I am. Kentucky reported the violations so "fighting" the issue wouldn't make a lot of sense. They could have attempted to negotiate the penalty (or maybe they did?) but at any rate, it didn't impact scholarships, official visits, post season play etc. so I think the AD decided to just take the win.

 

[optimus-blue]

That's essentially the opinion of people I listen to that are closer to things than I am. Kentucky reported the violations so "fighting" the issue wouldn't make a lot of sense. They could have attempted to negotiate the penalty (or maybe they did?) but at any rate, it didn't impact scholarships, official visits, post season play etc. so I think the AD decided to just take the win.

It wouldnt make sense to fight beacuae they dont mind the perception of being weak…

 

[Deeeefense]

It wouldnt make sense to fight beacuae they dont mind the perception of being weak…

I'm just saying it doesn't make sense to admit doing something and then trying to say you didn't do it. It would make some sense to negotiate the penalty if you thought it too sever, if you want to call that "fighting".

 

[Basil Cat]

Yes, as an outsider it is easy to admire the Cats, especially the improvement in their football program. For the first time in my life they actually seem to be serious about football as witnessed by their improvement in facilities. I was amazed at their stadium and practice facility when I visited.

All I know is UK is on a winning streak against the Gators and what once was a laughter of a game is an all out war now. And lately the Gators have been on the losing side. If the Cats go into Gainesville and pull out another win in October, the Gators may be the one looking for a new AD. And head coach.

NIL has changed the world of college athletics and it may be one of the reasons Saban hung it up at Bama. Who knows?

We are not serious about football. Basketball yes but not football. The gators will be back because your fan-based demands it. I wish we had higher expectations for football. But our AD just continues to tell us how hard the SEC is like we don’t know it. We have been here a lot longer than he has.

We have too many fans that are OK with mediocrity. With the exception of basketball. MB has brainwashed us into believing we can’t get to the top and we should be happy just where we are.
There is plenty of evidence right here, just in these posts from our fans.

 

[USMC Cat]

Not sure why he is getting blamed for this. If no one UK staff was aware of this then it was some kind of scheme players and someone or more on the hospital staff come up with. This was before NIL so apples to oranges. NCAA handed down there rule vacating wins, who cares every UK fan knows UK won 10 games. There is no post season ban, no loss of scholarships, 2 years probation with no real penalties. Sounds like theAD more than did his job.

This is the same logic the former Secret Service Director was trying to use after an assassination attempt. 😂

'Well, I wasn't there...'

Like it matters. You're in charge, dipshit.

 

[Wildcats1st]

He won’t his apologist buddies here always make excuses for him. It’s all on him

 

[UK Cats Rock]

thanks, Grumpy. Best non-UK fan on this board that I personally have witnessed.

 

[3632]

Has done a lot of good, and a lot of frustrating decisions. The bottom line is he isn't an AD for power 2 conference school in the new era of college sports.

His mindset is of yesterday's era. where promoting revenue-negative sports over CFB and BBall was admired, where following the NCAA rules was more important than winning, and the idea of students getting paid or extra benefits is unfathomable and abhorrent. He commands academic admissions and eligibility to be followed as if we are a Harvard of the mid south. And who knows he is so unpopular by fans he has surrendered being a public voice for UK sports since Joker. So it is left as even more added job responsibilities by his head coaches instead.

More than ready for the next generation AD

This is it right here. Has he done ‘fine’ yes. Fortunately for him and us he has been here during the absurd growth of conference revenues and tv contracts. If we were dependent upon fundraising abilities we would be an absolute disaster. His pragmatism gets heavily saluted by other administrators and academic types in university systems because he’s up their alley but, as you reference, we’ve been moving away from that as the reality of college sports for a decade. Is he really what it takes these days, not really. Him being plodding/stodgy gets pitched as doing things in a way that stays clean and all of that but the worst thing about this probation issue is we get punished and he’s bout the least aggressive ad there is. So we get punishments without any of the progress that has been needed in today’s new environment.

Again, as you reference, he gets saluted for non rev sports/women’s sports and all of that but in some ways it’s really just his budgetary and priority choices that make that happen. We still under fund football relative to department budgets to overfund these other sports. Men’s basketball we have to but others we do not. And people largely yawn…its very little other than some small talking point but virtually 99.9% of the fan base would rather us spend on the chase of better football than having a women’s softball team that makes a tournament. And I mean that as no offense to softball. I want them to do well too. But there is no reason to overspend on those things to chase it. So in many ways it shouldn’t surprise people he’s done well. He’s put money into relative to many peers.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

This is the same logic the former Secret Service Director was trying to use after an assassination attempt. 😂

'Well, I wasn't there...'

Like it matters. You're in charge, dipshit.

Really, that's the best comparison you come up with? She was in full SHA mode because of her response or lack of to a situation. UK responded to the discovery of a cover up and self reported. How do you feel those are the same?

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

We are not serious about football. Basketball yes but not football. The gators will be back because your fan-based demands it. I wish we had higher expectations for football. But our AD just continues to tell us how hard the SEC is like we don’t know it. We have been here a lot longer than he has.

We have too many fans that are OK with mediocrity. With the exception of basketball. MB has brainwashed us into believing we can’t get to the top and we should be happy just where we are.
There is plenty of evidence right here, just in these posts from our fans.

With the upgrades to the stadium, the recruiting room and isn't UK getting a new football only indoor practice facility? And football is getting ignored?

 

[Deeeefense]

isn't UK getting a new football only indoor practice facility?

They already got it. It's not really new they just got rid of the track that infringed on the field and made it larger and solely for football. It think they spent like $10M on the remodeling. It's as good as anything else in the SEC now.

 

[TM2013]

This is like tattling on your friends for jay-walking. Next level lame. Only Mitch is lame enough to do something like this. The rest of the big time ADs PROTECT their programs instead policing them like a hall monitor. Zero benefit other than Mitch getting a pat on the back from the NCAA brass for being a good boy.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

They already got it. It's not really new they just got rid of the track that infringed on the field and made it larger and solely for football. It think they spent like $10M on the remodeling. It's as good as anything else in the SEC now.

I just don't understand how fans feel UK administration is ignoring football, maybe in the past but doesn't appear that is the case now. UK has some obstacles to overcome, the biggest may be not many top 250 type kids in state for whatever reason.

I think UK is top 5 program in the conference, record may not show that in 24 because we got 2-3 teams that are catching a break on schedules and in the mix for 1 of the 3-4 SEC playoff slots.

 

[3632]

With the upgrades to the stadium, the recruiting room and isn't UK getting a new football only indoor practice facility? And football is getting ignored?

It’s not ignored. It’s that our overall budget now is ahead of UT in the sec at 7th place but we spend in football 11-12th. So it’s not exactly doing all they can. While other schools are obviously doing the opposite because football is a bell cow

 

[Deeeefense]

I just don't understand how fans feel UK administration is ignoring football, maybe in the past but doesn't appear that is the case now. UK has some obstacles to overcome, the biggest may be not many top 250 type kids in state for whatever reason.

I think UK is top 5 program in the conference, record may not show that in 24 because we got 2-3 teams that are catching a break on schedules and in the mix for 1 of the 3-4 SEC playoff slots.

Those of us that have been around a while know that football was historically just given enough resources so they could cash the checks. But when Mitch got here he set us on a path to be a two sport school and be competitive in football. I think he has achieved that but some of his decisions have not always been the most popular. He's religious, and some people think that get's in the way of him being "tough" I'm agnostic on both.

ON the surface our schedule does look very tough this season but I've looked at it and see some bright spots. Most notably the spacing. Rather than having 3 cupcakes the first 3 weeks, we only have one, and the others are spaced out over the season, giving us a chance to regroup between SEC games. Also we get two bye weeks this year instead of the normal one. We have a huge schedule advantage against Texas. We have a bye week and then a cupcake the week before we travel to Austin, while the Longhorns will be coming off a road game at Arkansas (who was, maybe still is a rival game), and then looking ahead to their hated rival aTm the week after us.