Mitch Barnhart Remains Mum on Kentucky Revenue-Sharing Plans

In fifteen days, student-athletes will be paid directly by the schools they attend to play sports. Even just a few years ago, that was nothing more than a hypothetical pitched at bars and barber shops. Now that it will soon be a reality, how will the University of Kentucky handle this massive undertaking?

By and large, Mitch Barnhart is not ready to answer that question, or really any question about how the athletics department will function in the revenue-sharing era of college athletics.

What we do know is that schools will be allowed to distribute up to $20.5 million this year to their student-athletes. UK Athletics created a new LLC for this new era, Champions Blue. During last week’s Board of Trustees meeting, we learned that they will be taking a loan from the school to foot the bill for the first two years of revenue-sharing. That lede got buried because UK Athletics also plans on upgrading facilities, which are expected to generate more revenue. That includes exploring plans for a potential entertainment district.

Those are the important details for Barnhart. For fans, the fodder is much simpler: How much money is each sports program going to get?

“We’re obviously going to participate in every way, shape, or form. We’re working our way through it,” Barnhart told Maggie Davis after the meeting. “A lot of it depends how we close down the stretch, with our ability to prepare for July 1.”

He added, “We gotta let these waters settle a little bit. I think people rush to the start line and then they take off, and all of a sudden it gets a little choppy because you made decisions in a hurry. People get frustrated sometimes with us because we’re a little more methodical in what we do, but I also say sometimes that the pace allows us to make decisions that most benefitted the Unversity of Kentucky. I’m not concerned with everyone else’s pace. What I am concerned with is making sure we get the right fit for Kentucky.”

Has UK decided how to allocate the $20+ million/year allowed for student athletes under new revenue sharing rules? I asked AD Barnhart, who is admittedly "a little more methodical"

"I'm not concerned with everyone else's pace… It doesn't have to fit anybody's needs but ours" pic.twitter.com/o7CMyhjReR

— Maggie Davis (@MaggieDavisTV) June 13, 2025

Before July 1, Kentucky student-athletes received compensation via NIL collectives. He’s also unwilling to say what exactly will happen to those in the revenue-sharing era. In a conversation with the Herald-Leader’s Jon Hale, Barnhart said, “We’ll work our way through that.”

“I think you’re going to see the next six to 12 months will be one of sort of a crystallization, so to speak, of our pathways. Where I think it’s been pretty murky and pretty cloudy, difficult to understand where everybody’s going, I think in the next year you’ll see some, it’ll become more clear.”

As the Kentucky athletic director alluded to, it’s difficult to be patient during a time when there are so many changes. They still have two weeks to make sure all of the metaphorical ducks are in a row.

However, the lack of clarity will surely lead Kentucky fans to question how prepared this school is for the revenue-sharing era and if certain sports are set up to succeed. Barnhart’s methodical, patient process put Kentucky behind the 8-ball at the start of the NIL era. Kentucky can’t afford to get lost in the shuffle during the next major transition in college sports.