The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were not fully reflected in the University of Kentucky athletics department’s 2020 fiscal year report submitted to the NCAA last January. They were in the 2021 edition, obtained from the university by the Herald-Leader through an open records request this month.
UK Athletics, which for at least two decades has been self-sustaining, would not have turned a profit in fiscal year 2021 if not for direct support from the university. UK directed $6,585,570 toward the athletics department in the last fiscal year — July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021.
Kentucky’s athletic department had been self-sufficient — receiving no direct support from UK — since at least 2002, the first year that Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart took over, university spokesperson Tony Neely said. Neely, who’s worked at the school since 1994, believes the athletic department was able to operate independently from the school prior to Barnhart’s tenure but was unable to identify the exact last time that it received direct financial support from the university.
