He’s 58 years old. He’s a native New Englander. He had been athletic director at Connecticut for 13 years.

So established was Lew Perkins at UConn, in fact, that his name never even came up in the initial widespread speculation about a possible successor to Kansas University’s deposed Al Bohl.

Why in the world, then, would Perkins want to pack up and leave UConn where he was almost an institution-within-an-institution? Sure, he was AD at Wichita State University for five years back in the mid-1980s, but Perkins’ relatively short stint in the state’s largest city could hardly be classified as foreshadowing.

As it turns out, Perkins was fortunate the KU job came open, because it enabled him to escape what would almost certainly become an undesirable situation.

Perkins’ dream was to build UConn into an NCAA Division I-A football power, but that’s not likely to happen now — not with UConn, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Virginia Tech about to be left high and dry without a major conference affiliation.

If you aren’t a part of a major conference in Division I-A, you’re in big trouble because you won’t be able to command a lucrative TV contract, or attract a bid from an upper-tier, high-dollar bowl, either.

Perkins stood tall — easier for him because he stands 6-foot-7 — with the other Big East Conference officials who filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference, accusing them of trying to ruin their league by luring Boston College, Syracuse and Miami away.

Surely Perkins realized the lawsuit was hopeless litigation, a desperate attempt of naive administrators to prevent the inevitable. What judge would issue an injunction to stop progress? How is the ACC any different from every other major conference that has expanded over the years?

Perkins is a man who helped convince the people of Connecticut they needed major college football, not the Division I-AA program they had when he arrived. He also helped convince the state Legislature it needed to spend $90 million to build a new football stadium.

Can you imagine the Kansas Legislature approving $90 million for a football stadium? Sunflower State solons wouldn’t approve $9 for a couple of stadium sirloins.

Anyway, when ACC presidents voted May 13 to expand from nine to 12 schools and snatch the additional three universities from Big East big-TV markets, Perkins must have seen the handwriting on the wall when he learned UConn wasn’t one of the three.

It’s noteworthy that date in mid-May was about a month after Bohl was let go at Kansas and about a month before Perkins will be announced as the Jayhawks’ AD at today’s 2 p.m. media session.

If you look at the numbers, it’s easy to see why the ACC didn’t want UConn even though the Huskies will have a spanking-new 40,000-seat stadium this fall. UConn ranked 104th out of the 119 NCAA Division I-A schools in attendance during the 2002 season.

UConn’s average football crowd was listed at 15,807. Kansas, meanwhile, ranked next-to-last on the Big 12 Conference football attendance chart, but the Jayhawks drew more than 36,000 — at least that’s what KU officials said — fans a game. KU’s real attendance was closer to 26,000, but that’s still more than UConn. And, of course, Kansas receives all that Big 12 football TV money, too.

Kansas always has a ready-made attractive home schedule because of its Big 12 affiliation, whereas UConn’s home games this fall will be against Indiana, Boston College, Lehigh, Akron, Western Michigan and Rutgers. Some of Connecticut’s sports writers are already speculating the new football stadium is a white elephant.

At Kansas, Perkins won’t find any roses growing in the football stadium. KU’s last winning season was 1995, its last in the defunct Big Eight Conference. But hope springs eternal at Kansas, because everyone knows the Jayhawks at least have a chance.

At UConn, it appears now that football will have no chance if the ACC expands.