During meetings of the UK Athletics Association Board of Directors and Finance Committee, questions about the support given football and the school’s academic mission seemed to touch a nerve.
Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart raised the subject of questions about whether UK supports the football program adequately. He said UK is on a par with other SEC schools in terms of support for the football program.
“We’re very competitive,” he told members of the Finance Committee. “Are we going to be first? Certainly not. . . (But) We’re not in the position that everybody has made us out to be.”
Barnhart added at the full Board of Directors meeting that UK would provide $10 million in support “specifically for student-athletes that fans don’t see.”
Barnhart and UK president Lee Todd noted the support given the school’s academic mission exceeded the $1.7 million annual donation given for non-athletic scholarships. That included an additional $2.1 million generated by licensing fees and another $1.8 million payment for the use of UK offices and services.
“For some people, it’s never enough,” Todd told the board. “We’re doing things that just aren’t appreciated.”
Barnhart said that the athletic department’s donations were “significant” and totaled anywhere from $12 to $15 million over “the last few years.”
Said Barnhart, “That’s a brand new facility for us, if you look at it that way.”
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.
7 comments ↓
If this wasn’t on a subject that is near and dear to Kentucky football fans it would be a great joke.
Some on please ask, if, other than Vandy, there is a basketball coach making more than the football coach in the SEC. Ask if any other school in the SEC is there a school happier than a pig in sh-t to have a non winning record in the last 33 years in football against the SEC. Is there another school in the conference who plays a division two school every year, and two teams that are ranked higher than 100 in the 121 programs in division one?
Barnhart may convince the old people on the athletic board, the finance board, the skate board and any other kind of board, but go to any other SEC school, again, other than Vandy, and see the atmosphere on their campus.
Folks ,Barnhart is showing how much respect he has for the football fans at Kentucky by making such a foolish remark.
Maybe some day, some one with develop some hanger downs and get rid of this idiot.
Could it be that Mitch Barnhart is really dedicated to bringing football success to UK.A football team requires at least 22 scholarship athletes vs 5 for a basketball team.
UK’s support of the football program is “on par with other SEC schools”? Hardly. Fact is, UK’s football program generates almost TWICE the revenue as the basketball program, but UK is near the bottom of the SEC in terms of coaches’ salaries (UK is last) and recruiting (only four teams spend less than UK, and one of them is Alabama which has no need to recruit). Barnhart is either an idiot or a liar.
Would UK hire an untried assistant coach to coach the basketball team? No…. we had to get the best and pay the most! Joker being hired is like UK hiring Mark Pope for our basketball team. An assistant that played for UK. It is a joke!
Barnhart is the worst hire in UK history. Only Lee Todd would hire this idiot and then not fire him over the “one man search committee” that brought us Billy G.
I worked on Barnhart’s house 7 years ago and still have not been paid.
There is no way in Haides that would ever be tolerated in B-ball! So why in Sam Hill is it okay in F-ball!? You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit! It’s time we as true fans stand up and demand better! Maybe it’s time to Trump………YOU”RE FIRED!!!
dang, tom pretty much said it all. back when joker was the offensive coordinator, his plays and lack of getting the ball into the right hands, and a propensity to shrug it all off until they could recruit the right players, spoke volumes to what kind of head coach he’d be. now that he’s the head coach, everything is a process. i have no sympathy for the football program and uk’s travails are self-inflicted.
Wow guys, ease up there. Let’s take a step back:
1. UK is one of 10 Athletic Departments in the country that MAKES money meaning they don’t have to steal from the general fund to support their teams.
2. UKAA gives as much if not more than any D1 school. They aren’t required to give anything, they are a separate business, and the money goes to the school as a charitable donation. That MEANS that if we do give all the teachers a raise then it probably will equate directly to a tuition increase which nobody wants.
3. Football pays the bills, EVEN at UK, a basketball school (I believe Football and Basketball revenue have been dead even the last two years and football was mediocre through those years).
4. Like it or not, the state has had a huge rise in the popularity of football over basketball and we are starting to see many of our good high school athletes going that route instead of basketball.
5. Our football team has the worst facilities next to Vandy in the SEC and some of the worst in the country. Until around 2006-07 the locker room wasn’t even big enough for the whole team so Brooks used to give TWO pregame speeches EVERY game for offense and defense in two separate rooms. (We do have a competitive practice facility now which beats the uphill swamp/storm drain backup they used to practice in before Mitch came in).
6. This whole assault on UKAA is being led by one unnamed Political Science teacher angry about not getting a raise the last three years (although he makes +80K a year according to records, not to shabby). Welcome to the club, I’ve personally taken over a 20% hit the last three years in my state job (no OT, furloughs, increased insurance costs, and I’m now at less than half of what he makes without his raises). There are a lot of people I work with like me with MS degrees who could probably make as much money bartending as doing the job we do but we’re not calling for the business next door to make up the difference in our pay. That’s really what this guy’s whole argument translates to since UK and UKAA are separate entities. So suck it up and don’t kill one of two good things UK has going right now, namely, the hospital and a profitable athletics department. Way to go Mitch for supporting ALL sports and not just basketball either, I personally love what he has accomplished with all of UK athletics and I hope he stays a long time.