Mitch Barnhart (born August 27, 1959) is the athletics director for the Kentucky Wildcats athletics program at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Barnhart was hired by the university in 2002 succeeding Larry Ivy. Barnhart served in the same capacity at Oregon State University from 1998 to 2002. He is the university's tenth athletics director. In March 2016 Barnhart signed an extension on his contract which will keep him at Kentucky until 2022.