Let's look at both and what they have done and also seeing that they have both done over the years.....we will do it based on the bio each have on their perspective schools website.
Barnhart:
Mitch Barnhart, who is in his 14th year as University of Kentucky athletics director, is being recognized as one of the best in the nation in his profession.
Barnhart was named NCAA Division I Athletics Director of the Year, one of four Division I ADs selected for the honor, in June at the annual convention of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
A month earlier, Barnhart was one of four finalists for the Athletics Director of the Year as chosen by the SportsBusiness Journal. And, in February, Barnhart received the Sports Business Award from the Bluegrass Sports Commission
It is no coincidence that Barnhart’s multiple accolades came in the same year as the completion of his 15 by 15 by 15 Plan, an ambitious blueprint set in 2008 in which Kentucky would rank in the nation’s top 15 athletic programs and win 15 conference or national championships by 2015. At the same time, Barnhart set a goal of a 3.0 composite grade-point average for UK student-athletes and an even greater commitment to community service by Wildcat athletes and staff. All of the goals presented bold, unprecedented challenges for UK Athletics.
The academic goal was first achieved in the spring semester of 2010 and has an active streak of six consecutive 3.0 semesters, hitting a peak in spring 2014 with a school-record 3.218 composite GPA. Community service has risen to more than 4,000 hours annually and includes outreach to the Lexington area, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and as far away as Ethiopia.
The Directors’ Cup objective was reached a year early when UK checked in at a school-record No. 11 in the 2013-14 national all-sports standings. The Wildcats followed with a No. 22 ranking in 2014-15, marking the third consecutive year that UK landed in the Top 25 and the three highest rankings in school history.
The final goal was reached in March when UK men’s basketball claimed the Southeastern Conference Tournament title, the 15th championship won by Wildcat athletes since 2008.
Reaching the peaks of the 15 by 15 by 15 Plan didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen by accident, either. It was the result of a steady, methodical process which Barnhart began upon his arrival at Kentucky in 2002.
Barnhart started by providing funds for full coaching staffs and scholarship allotments for all 22 UK sports.
Next, Barnhart constructed new facilities, including the Joe Craft Center; new stadiums for track and field, softball and soccer; the UK Golf House; and the Wildcat Coal Lodge dormitory. Currently, Commonwealth Stadium is completing major renovations and a new football practice/ office complex is underway. A new baseball stadium and indoor tennis facility are on the drawing board. All totaled, Barnhart has completed or is in the process of approximately $297 million of facility construction.
Additional achievements have occurred on and off the field under Barnhart’s guidance. UK athletes have set records for graduation rates and maintained a perfect mark in the 11-year history of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate. In the arenas of competition, records have been achieved for winning conference championships and two Wildcat teams -- rifle in 2011 and men’s basketball in 2012 -- have earned national championships.
Even with the department's growth and the increasingly competitive nature of college sports, UK Athletics has remained financially self-sufficient under Barnhart’s management, operating with a balanced budget and with the help of no state or University funds. Seeing pressing facility needs on campus as well, Barnhart has made a $65 million commitment for athletics to fund nearly two-thirds of the new Academic Science Building. He also directs an annual $1.7-million contribution to the University’s scholarship program. Millions more dollars from the athletics budget stay on campus each year through athletic scholarship payments, administrative support payments, merchandise royalties, and other avenues.
The influence of the UK AD extends beyond the borders of campus and the fields of competition. Barnhart has served on numerous national committees and currently is a member of the NCAA Division I Management Council, is chairman of the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee and is on the SEC Network Content Committee.
Barnhart's legacy at UK includes helping develop administrators who have gone on to become athletics directors at nationally prominent universities, including Greg Byrne of Arizona, Mark Coyle at Syracuse, Rob Mullens at Oregon and Scott Stricklin at Mississippi State.
Barnhart arrived at UK from Oregon State, where he served four successful years (1998-2002) as athletics director. Before OSU, he worked in athletics administration posts at Tennessee (1986-98), Southern Methodist University (1983-86), Oregon (1983) and San Diego State (1982-83).
Barnhart is a native of Kansas City, Kan. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University (Kansas) in 1981 and a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University.
In addition to the extraordinary achievements of his work world, reaching new heights is also a theme of his personal life. An avid mountain climber, Barnhart has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, along with two of the most challenging peaks in the United States, Mount Rainier in Washington and the Grand Teton in Wyoming. Active in community service, Barnhart is on the national advisory board of K-Love Radio.
Barnhart’s family includes his wife, Connie; three children, Blaire, Scott, and Kirby Willoughby; Kirby’s husband, McKenzie, and a grandson, Cooper.
Blackburn:
Has there ever been a better time to be a Moc? That question has been posed all over the Scenic City the last three years. Southern Conference titles, record attendance and unprecedented academic success have all raised the level of excitement for athletics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
None of this has occurred by accident or happenstance. It is the culmination of extremely hard work by a very talented group of student-athletes, coaches and support staff, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics David Blackburn.
Hired on April 20, 2013, Blackburn quickly instilled a new mission that focused on equipping the entire athletics department for success, while accompanying a vision of achieving excellence. It is clear that both messages have been received in competition, in the classroom and in the community.
The 2015-16 season saw the Mocs become the first in the more than 100-year history of the Southern Conference win the football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball championships in the same year. UTC also won titles in volleyball and wrestling, while leading the SoCon in attendance in football and men’s and women’s basketball for the second year in a row.
UTC saw continued excellence in the football program with its third-straight SoCon title in 2015. UTC advanced to the FCS Playoffs for the second time, while the men’s basketball team was back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.
Volleyball had its best season in nearly two decades, while women’s basketball and wrestling continued to dominate the league. All totaled, the Mocs have brought home a SoCon-leading 21 regular season and tournament titles in all sports over the last three years.
Blackburn has also turned heads with his impressive head coaching hires. When he took over in 2013, he had the unique situation of filling vacancies in both men’s and women’s basketball. By all accounts, he nailed each hire with Will Wade and Jim Foster.
Foster has won three-straight SoCon titles and has had the women’s program ranked in the top 25 over the last three seasons. Wade turned around the men’s team and parlayed that into the head coaching position at VCU.
Blackburn quickly snagged Florida assistant Matt McCall who was the SoCon Coach of the Year in 2016, leading UTC to 29 wins in this first season. He also hired Gavin McKinney in 2015 to take over the women’s soccer program.
In the classroom, UTC student-athletes set a school record for semester grade-point-average with a 3.113 in the fall. Overall, student-athletes at UTC have posted a 3.0 or higher for five straight terms after hitting the mark for the first time in spring of 2014. UTC had record numbers of student-athletes on the Academic All-SoCon teams in 2015, while eight programs beat the national average for APR scores in 2015-16.
The Chattanooga community has also taken note of what is happening at UTC. The Mocs have led the SoCon in attendance in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and wrestling each of the last two seasons. The Southern Scuffle has also grown into the top in-season wrestling tournament in the nation, while softball continues to enjoy a strong following.
All of this success came as no surprise, based on the experiences and expertise Blackburn brought to the position. He spent the previous two decades in a number of administrative roles at the University of Tennessee. He most recently served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration where he was member of the Volunteers’ executive staff.
A native of Loudon, Tenn., Blackburn is married to the former Andrea Radel of Albion, Mich. They have two daughters, Emma, who is currently a sophomore at UTC, and Charlee. He is a 1990 graduate of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
Updated July 2016.
Barnhart:
Mitch Barnhart, who is in his 14th year as University of Kentucky athletics director, is being recognized as one of the best in the nation in his profession.
Barnhart was named NCAA Division I Athletics Director of the Year, one of four Division I ADs selected for the honor, in June at the annual convention of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
A month earlier, Barnhart was one of four finalists for the Athletics Director of the Year as chosen by the SportsBusiness Journal. And, in February, Barnhart received the Sports Business Award from the Bluegrass Sports Commission
It is no coincidence that Barnhart’s multiple accolades came in the same year as the completion of his 15 by 15 by 15 Plan, an ambitious blueprint set in 2008 in which Kentucky would rank in the nation’s top 15 athletic programs and win 15 conference or national championships by 2015. At the same time, Barnhart set a goal of a 3.0 composite grade-point average for UK student-athletes and an even greater commitment to community service by Wildcat athletes and staff. All of the goals presented bold, unprecedented challenges for UK Athletics.
The academic goal was first achieved in the spring semester of 2010 and has an active streak of six consecutive 3.0 semesters, hitting a peak in spring 2014 with a school-record 3.218 composite GPA. Community service has risen to more than 4,000 hours annually and includes outreach to the Lexington area, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and as far away as Ethiopia.
The Directors’ Cup objective was reached a year early when UK checked in at a school-record No. 11 in the 2013-14 national all-sports standings. The Wildcats followed with a No. 22 ranking in 2014-15, marking the third consecutive year that UK landed in the Top 25 and the three highest rankings in school history.
The final goal was reached in March when UK men’s basketball claimed the Southeastern Conference Tournament title, the 15th championship won by Wildcat athletes since 2008.
Reaching the peaks of the 15 by 15 by 15 Plan didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen by accident, either. It was the result of a steady, methodical process which Barnhart began upon his arrival at Kentucky in 2002.
Barnhart started by providing funds for full coaching staffs and scholarship allotments for all 22 UK sports.
Next, Barnhart constructed new facilities, including the Joe Craft Center; new stadiums for track and field, softball and soccer; the UK Golf House; and the Wildcat Coal Lodge dormitory. Currently, Commonwealth Stadium is completing major renovations and a new football practice/ office complex is underway. A new baseball stadium and indoor tennis facility are on the drawing board. All totaled, Barnhart has completed or is in the process of approximately $297 million of facility construction.
Additional achievements have occurred on and off the field under Barnhart’s guidance. UK athletes have set records for graduation rates and maintained a perfect mark in the 11-year history of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate. In the arenas of competition, records have been achieved for winning conference championships and two Wildcat teams -- rifle in 2011 and men’s basketball in 2012 -- have earned national championships.
Even with the department's growth and the increasingly competitive nature of college sports, UK Athletics has remained financially self-sufficient under Barnhart’s management, operating with a balanced budget and with the help of no state or University funds. Seeing pressing facility needs on campus as well, Barnhart has made a $65 million commitment for athletics to fund nearly two-thirds of the new Academic Science Building. He also directs an annual $1.7-million contribution to the University’s scholarship program. Millions more dollars from the athletics budget stay on campus each year through athletic scholarship payments, administrative support payments, merchandise royalties, and other avenues.
The influence of the UK AD extends beyond the borders of campus and the fields of competition. Barnhart has served on numerous national committees and currently is a member of the NCAA Division I Management Council, is chairman of the NCAA Competition Oversight Committee and is on the SEC Network Content Committee.
Barnhart's legacy at UK includes helping develop administrators who have gone on to become athletics directors at nationally prominent universities, including Greg Byrne of Arizona, Mark Coyle at Syracuse, Rob Mullens at Oregon and Scott Stricklin at Mississippi State.
Barnhart arrived at UK from Oregon State, where he served four successful years (1998-2002) as athletics director. Before OSU, he worked in athletics administration posts at Tennessee (1986-98), Southern Methodist University (1983-86), Oregon (1983) and San Diego State (1982-83).
Barnhart is a native of Kansas City, Kan. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University (Kansas) in 1981 and a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University.
In addition to the extraordinary achievements of his work world, reaching new heights is also a theme of his personal life. An avid mountain climber, Barnhart has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, along with two of the most challenging peaks in the United States, Mount Rainier in Washington and the Grand Teton in Wyoming. Active in community service, Barnhart is on the national advisory board of K-Love Radio.
Barnhart’s family includes his wife, Connie; three children, Blaire, Scott, and Kirby Willoughby; Kirby’s husband, McKenzie, and a grandson, Cooper.
Blackburn:
Has there ever been a better time to be a Moc? That question has been posed all over the Scenic City the last three years. Southern Conference titles, record attendance and unprecedented academic success have all raised the level of excitement for athletics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
None of this has occurred by accident or happenstance. It is the culmination of extremely hard work by a very talented group of student-athletes, coaches and support staff, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics David Blackburn.
Hired on April 20, 2013, Blackburn quickly instilled a new mission that focused on equipping the entire athletics department for success, while accompanying a vision of achieving excellence. It is clear that both messages have been received in competition, in the classroom and in the community.
The 2015-16 season saw the Mocs become the first in the more than 100-year history of the Southern Conference win the football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball championships in the same year. UTC also won titles in volleyball and wrestling, while leading the SoCon in attendance in football and men’s and women’s basketball for the second year in a row.
UTC saw continued excellence in the football program with its third-straight SoCon title in 2015. UTC advanced to the FCS Playoffs for the second time, while the men’s basketball team was back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.
Volleyball had its best season in nearly two decades, while women’s basketball and wrestling continued to dominate the league. All totaled, the Mocs have brought home a SoCon-leading 21 regular season and tournament titles in all sports over the last three years.
Blackburn has also turned heads with his impressive head coaching hires. When he took over in 2013, he had the unique situation of filling vacancies in both men’s and women’s basketball. By all accounts, he nailed each hire with Will Wade and Jim Foster.
Foster has won three-straight SoCon titles and has had the women’s program ranked in the top 25 over the last three seasons. Wade turned around the men’s team and parlayed that into the head coaching position at VCU.
Blackburn quickly snagged Florida assistant Matt McCall who was the SoCon Coach of the Year in 2016, leading UTC to 29 wins in this first season. He also hired Gavin McKinney in 2015 to take over the women’s soccer program.
In the classroom, UTC student-athletes set a school record for semester grade-point-average with a 3.113 in the fall. Overall, student-athletes at UTC have posted a 3.0 or higher for five straight terms after hitting the mark for the first time in spring of 2014. UTC had record numbers of student-athletes on the Academic All-SoCon teams in 2015, while eight programs beat the national average for APR scores in 2015-16.
The Chattanooga community has also taken note of what is happening at UTC. The Mocs have led the SoCon in attendance in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and wrestling each of the last two seasons. The Southern Scuffle has also grown into the top in-season wrestling tournament in the nation, while softball continues to enjoy a strong following.
All of this success came as no surprise, based on the experiences and expertise Blackburn brought to the position. He spent the previous two decades in a number of administrative roles at the University of Tennessee. He most recently served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration where he was member of the Volunteers’ executive staff.
A native of Loudon, Tenn., Blackburn is married to the former Andrea Radel of Albion, Mich. They have two daughters, Emma, who is currently a sophomore at UTC, and Charlee. He is a 1990 graduate of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
Updated July 2016.
