Does NIL help or hurt recruiting in college sports? Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart weighs in.

University of Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart was the featured guest for last week’s September edition of the Lexington Forum, a monthly community conversation focusing on issues central to the growth and success of Lexington.

In front of a crowd of about 100 people (including the Herald-Leader), Barnhart discussed a variety of subjects in the world of college athletics during a moderated conversation.

But it was the first topic he addressed — Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) in college sports — that drew some of the most direct comments from the 64-year-old Barnhart.

“We’re two years into the NIL era. ... And I would say probably it’s as unregulated as it ever has been, maybe more,” Barnhart said. “I think the original intent of the law was to protect the name, image and the likenesses of the young men and women that compete in college athletics. And that was very well intended, but unfortunately what it did was it invited a lot of pieces of our enterprise back into the puzzle, which complicated things and made it more (of) what it was not intended to do.”

Barnhart — who recently signed a contract extension that could keep him in charge of UK’s athletics department through the 2027-28 school year — specifically discussed the challenges posed by both the existence of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal.

“I do believe that (NIL) has the purpose and we’ve got to find a way through to settle the waters a little bit. It’s pretty choppy out there right now,” Barnhart said. “The combination of that and the transfer portal have made it really, really difficult to develop cultures in locker rooms.”

In June, UK men’s basketball coach John Calipari, softball coach Rachel Lawson and other UK athletics officials joined Barnhart on a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with Kentucky’s congressional delegation about NIL matters.

Not only do NIL laws differ from state to state, but some guidance issued this summer by the NCAA to member schools contradicted what those laws say.

Last week, Barnhart referenced the large number of college students that are connected to Kentucky’s sports programs.

Between UK’s 675 student-athletes and additional students who participate in activities like band and cheer, Barnhart said there’s about 1,000 people in the UK athletics sphere with “generational opportunities.”

And Barnhart is clearly concerned with keeping those opportunities available.

“(If) certain things happen, I’m not sure all those opportunities still exist,” he said.

Barnhart added that only about 7 to 10 percent of college student-athletes have “an absolute ability to market themselves,” which can result in massive financial windfalls from NIL deals.

He pointed out that those cases aren’t representative of every student-athlete.

“I think that there’s finding a way to define the difference between that 7 to 10 percent and the rest of the student-athletes that it really does not impact, (that’s) critical to what we’re trying to do going forward,” Barnhart said.

UK athletics’ head man is far from the first person in his department to voice strong opinions on NIL.

Most recently, Calipari used a late June press conference to present some of his own ideas for fixing the NIL issue in college sports, without the need for government assistance.

Among Calipari’s ideas were to allow players to give a certain amount of NIL money to help take care of their families, with the remaining money going into a fund in the student-athlete’s name that would be recouped when the athlete finishes participating in college athletics.

If you’re looking for specifics at UK in terms of NIL failures or successes, securing concrete information on this front is difficult.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed SB 6 into law (which provided a statewide framework for student-athletes to profit from NIL) in March 2022, but the bill includes language that restricts state universities from releasing documents related to NIL in response to open records requests.

But it’s clear that — now several years into a college sports world with NIL as a major player — UK is stepping up its efforts on this front.

In May, Liz Brown was named the NIL director for the Kentucky women’s basketball program.

This marked the first official instance in any UK sport of a staff member holding a position with that explicit title.

And Kentucky is now tasked with its most important hire yet in the NIL space.

TJ Beisner — who since August 2021 has overseen NIL strategy and execution for the Kentucky men’s basketball program — will be leaving UK to work with the North Carolina men’s basketball team on its NIL matters, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

Barnhart discusses if NIL helps or hurts recruiting

While Barnhart highlighted the financial literacy coursework and opportunities (such as opening a Fidelity investment account) available to Kentucky student-athletes, he was also directly posed the main question that most UK sports fans have about NIL.

Does NIL help or hurt recruiting?

Barnhart said it depends on the coach, and on the program.

“I think there will be some programs that have unbelievable successes with it, and some programs will really struggle with it. I can’t speak to who that is or why that is,” Barnhart said. “I think it’s just a really different landscape, a really different way of recruiting.”

Regardless of the federal legislation that arrives or doesn’t in the NIL space, Barnhart emphasized the importance of recruiting players that align with a team’s values.

“I don’t think we ever, ever, get away from ‘You recruit what’s best for your locker room,’” Barnhart added. “... If it’s a five-star player or a two-star player, you’ve got to figure out how that person best fits your locker room, I say that whether that’s football, whether that’s our men’s golf program.”

“... You’ve got to figure out your locker room, and I think the coaches that can figure that out and find the right chemistry will continue to win.”