Why Mitch Barnhart, UK are still in favor of an 8-game SEC schedule with Oklahoma, Texas

Since the news broke that Oklahoma and Texas would be joining the Southeastern Conference in 2024 — a year earlier than initially planned — the league’s move to a nine-game football schedule has been couched as a foregone conclusion in many reports.

Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart is not ready to give up on his desire to keep the league schedule at eight games, though.

“The eight-game has served us well,” Barnhart said. “So, if you ask what camp I’m in, I’m probably in that camp that says this is how we’ve built our program. Through the bowl system, through eight games and building a non-conference schedule that’s allowed us to be ready to play in November and December.”

The coalition of programs who prefer the football schedule remains at eight games has been painted as a group with little football tradition who want to preserve an easier path to six wins and bowl eligibility, but the equation is not that simple, according to Barnhart.

Kentucky’s athletics director does not attempt to hide the fact that a non-conference schedule that has featured one FCS team, two Group of Five teams and the annual Governor’s Cup rivalry game versus Louisville has been key in Mark Stoops building UK from 2-10 in his first season to eight consecutive bowl berths. Prior to UK’s Music City Bowl loss to Iowa, the Wildcats boasted the nation’s longest non-conference winning streak at 20 games.

By reaching bowl games, Kentucky was able to use the extra month of practice to develop young players. That experience helped elevate the program from lower-tier bowls to two 10-win seasons since 2018, a win total Kentucky had not reached since 1977.

But the format of UK’s non-conference schedule has other less obvious benefits that would be put at risk by a nine-game SEC schedule, Barnhart said.

“From a financial perspective, about every second or third year we’ve been able to have eight home games,” he said. “That’s served us well financially. Competitively, it’s allowed us to build some strength in our schedule in the non-conference and play a lot of players and get them involved.

“That ninth game brings a lot of other things into the equation. Every other year you would only have four conference games at home. Nine conference games and whatever that gets you in the non-conference schedule, now you’re managing another set of injuries, player availability, depth issues. Those are things that have always been tough for us. I want to be thoughtful about how it impacts our competitiveness.”

Of course, there are obvious counters to Barnhart’s points, too.

It seems a safe bet that most fans (and likely many players) are probably more interested in an extra SEC game than facing another Mid-American Conference team. Kentucky’s future schedules, which include games at Akron (2024) and Toledo (2028), suggest there is no guarantee the athletics department will be able to continue scheduling four non-conference home games in years the Louisville game is played in Lexington anyway as Group of Five schools hold more leverage in scheduling discussions.

Barnhart noted an extra SEC game ensures half the league will pick up a loss on a weekend the league could have gone undefeated if it was playing opponents from other conferences, but the expansion of the playoff field to 12 teams should mitigate some of the risk additional losses carry.

Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart. right, signed football coach Mark Stoops, left, to a contract extension in November with conference expansion looming.

For Kentucky, the conversation about expanding the SEC schedule cannot be separated from the future of the Governor’s Cup rivalry. While Kentucky could choose to continue playing Louisville while cutting one of its other non-conference games even with a nine-game SEC schedule, the UK administration has not been shy about suggesting the rivalry series might be at risk if the SEC schedule expands, especially if the priority of the non-conference schedule is viewed as giving Kentucky a breather from the SEC gauntlet.

“If it comes back and we’re in nine games … we’ll figure out what that means to our non-conference schedule,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart made the decision to sign Stoops to a contract extension that will pay him $9 million per season in November knowing the SEC schedule expanding to nine games when Oklahoma and Texas joined the league was a real possibility. Considering UK’s only losing record since Stoops reached his first bowl game in 2016 game came in the 10-game conference-only schedule in 2020, there is reason to wonder if the program’s recent success can be maintained if the league adopts a schedule that features three fixed opponents and six rotating games.

Stoops is 6-16 against teams now in the SEC West. His UK teams are winless in 11 road games at SEC West schools.

By making Stoops one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, Barnhart sent a clear message expectations for the program have risen beyond simply reaching bowl games. Changes to the SEC schedule might make that task more difficult, but Barnhart remains optimistic about the program’s trajectory.

“I think it was really important to keep Mark,” Barnhart said. “The stability is the thing that’s allowed us to grow. I go back to the first two or three years, we didn’t have a lot of success. Mark just kept grinding away at it. I give him and our staff a lot of credit. Our fans, I’m thankful for our fans being patient and hanging in there with us. We’ve grown it into something that’s pretty special.

“Now when he walks into the room as the second-most tenured guy in the league, all of the sudden there’s a different amount of respect for our program and the way that Mark coaches. The toughness and the discipline that he brings, I think is what’s going to allow us to be competitive in this league, continue to be competitive.”

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