Kentucky governor Andy Beshear this week questioned the decision-making at the University of Kentucky, including the new position and seven-figure salary UK bestowed upon retiring athletic director Mitch Barnhart.
"Beshear's chastisement, rare for a sitting governor, comes at a turbulent juncture for Kentucky athletics, which is falling behind its peers on the gridiron and the hardwood," wrote Myron Medcalf of ESPN.
Barnhart, who will step down on June 30, was recently named executive in residence for the UK Sport and Workforce Initiative by Kentucky president Eli Capilouto, Medcalf reported. The contract for the position, which will pay Barnhart $1 million per year beginning July 1, does not provide a concrete job description.
"I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky," Beshear said in a statement Tuesday. "My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty.
"I've been told that despite previously saying the dean must be approved by UK's Board of Trustees, the university has shifted and now states approval is not needed. I worry that these actions are related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university. I hope students, faculty, trustees and the community attend this week's board meetings and ask the tough questions that should be answered."
Beshear's criticism also follows the recent firing of football coach Mark Stoops in December after four consecutive sub-.500 seasons. Meanwhile, UK's men's basketball program, which is the winningest Division I team in NCAA history, hasn't reached the Final Four since 2015.
