Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart gave Darrell Bird of 247Sports an exclusive interview at the SEC Spring Meeting.
Barnhart addressed concerns about NIL at UK and more.
Unlike many fans, Barnhart praises Kentucky’s NIL efforts, even stating that the men’s basketball program does it better than any other program in college basketball.
Here is an excerpt:
John Calipari’s men’s basketball team is the standard bearer.
“Our basketball team, even taking Oscar (Tshiebwe) out of the equation, has probably had more success than anybody in the country in terms of the NIL space,” Barnhart said. “So now we’ve got the No. 1 recruiting class in the country coming in. There’s a reason they came here because we do Name, Image, Likeness really well at the University of Kentucky.”
However, some blame UK’s NIL strategy for missing out on big-name transfers during the off-season. Kentucky will not guarantee money or playing time though it is clear to all that riches await.
“This notion of an inability to maintain a roster or inability to get players, that’s not true,” Barnhart said. “We’ve done that incredibly well.
“Cal has been very thoughtful about the way he’s done it and purposeful in the way he has done it,” Barnhart said. “At the truest sense of what Name, Image and Likeness was supposed to be, our young people have been very, very successful with that in men’s basketball.”
