STORRS, Conn. -- University of Connecticut athletic director Lew Perkins, who's helped lead the fight to keep Boston College, Miami and Syracuse from defecting from the Big East to the ACC, was named Kansas director of athletics Tuesday.

The move was made official by KU chancellor Dr. Robert Hemenway.

"Lew Perkins is highly regarded nationally, and has had a positive impact everywhere he's served," said Hemenway. "He is known for his integrity, his support of women's athletics and his ability to help build champions. All of those qualities are valued at KU, so he stood out for me as an ideal candidate."

Connecticut named Jeffrey Hathaway, the AD at Colorado State for the past two seasons, as Perkins' replacement. Hathaway served as the Huskies' senior associate athletic director from 1990-2001.

Since Perkins' arrival at UConn in 1990 from Maryland, UConn has fielded six national championship teams in three sports -- men's and women's basketball and men's soccer.

Perkins, 58, emerged last week as the leading candidate for the Kansas job and negotiations continued throughout the weekend. Kansas has been seeking to install a permanent athletic director by July 1. Perkins will assume his new duties in early July. He becomes the 13th athletics director in Kansas history.

Hemenway also expressed appreciation to Drue Jennings, interim director of athletics, for his role in the search and his overall leadership the past two months. "Drue and I worked closely together to find the best possible person under a demanding timeline," said Hemenway. "I am grateful to Drue for everything he has done to help pave the way for Lew Perkins as his successor."

In the past few weeks, Perkins has been involved in the fight to keep Boston College, Miami and Syracuse from defecting from the Big East to the Athletic Coast Conference.

He was with Gov. John G. Rowland and state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Friday when they announced a lawsuit by UConn and the four remaining Big East football schools against the ACC, Miami and Boston College. The lawsuit, which accuses the league and the schools conspiring to decimate the league, seeks monetary damages and a halt to the teams' exodus.

Perkins directed the rise of UConn football to Division I-A from I-AA and fought for the construction of a new 40,000-seat stadium in East Hartford, which is scheduled to open Aug. 30 when the Huskies play Indiana.

UConn's football move to the Big East in 2005 may be in jeopardy because of the ACC's expansion plans.

On Sunday night, ACC commissioner John Swofford said the lawsuit should not affect the expansion plans because the conference followed proper guidelines.

Perkins was under contract at UConn through July 30, 2005. He has a buyout clause that requires him to pay the university $200,000 if he accepted another college or professional job, unless he first obtains a release from UConn president Philip Austin.

For the 2002-2003 school year, Perkins received a base salary of $273,870. UConn also paid him $105,108 for the purchase of a qualified annuity or savings product. Besides those payments, his contract provided him with 28 tickets to games in every UConn sport, home and away, in conference tournaments and postseason play.

Details of Perkins' financial package at Kansas were not available. Bohl was earning $255,000 a year to oversee the $27 million Kansas athletic department budget.

Bohl's firing made national headlines because of his public dispute with Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams. Williams later left Kansas for North Carolina.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.