Allegations against U. Kansas Athletic Director Lew Perkins appear to be false after an internal review ordered by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little found no evidence to support the claim.

Perkins was the victim of a blackmail scheme a couple weeks ago that accused him of obtaining exercise equipment for preferential seating, skewing results of drug tests and having ineligible student-athletes.

“Even though we may question the motivations of the source, the allegations were serious enough to warrant a detailed review,” Gray-Little said. “That review has been completed and its results find no evidence to substantiate the allegations that were made.”

Vice Provost Mary Lee Hummert and human resources program director Allen Humphrey conducted the review and found nothing leading to those claims.

William Dent, the blackmailer and a former Kansas Athletics employee who left in 2007, told the Topeka Capital Journal last week he was unhappy with his departure from the program and wanted to “screw” with Perkins.

Hummert and Humphrey questioned Dent during the review and he failed to provide specifics on the drug-testing allegations and wouldn’t name specific ineligible athletes.Patrick Carpenter and Mark Glass, the co-owners of Medicinal Outfitters, the brand as the equipment, denied getting favorable seating.

Hummert and Humphrey also discovered Medical Outfitters gave a whirlpool to Kansas Athletics, not Perkins. The in-kind contribution was accidentally left off of Carpenter’s priority points account as part of the Williams Fund donor point system for the 2004-05 season. The following season, the problem was fixed and he had better seats.

With this out of the way, the athletic department can now focus on what they are going to do with Nebraska announcing its departure from the Big 12.

“I have full confidence in Lew and his ability to focus on what is best for our student-athletes and the University of Kansas in the days ahead,” Gray-Little said.