The head of a committee looking for a new Kansas University athletic director says no finalists for the job have been found yet.

Search committee chairman Ray Evans told The Kansas City Star on Monday the effort is moving faster than expected. He says the search committee has interviewed several candidates, but no finalists' names have been presented to the Kansas chancellor.

Evans, a Kansas football player in 1979-80, says he expects recommendations in the "not-too-distant" future.

On Sunday night, "Sports by Brooks" reported that Kentucky AD and Kansas native Mitch Barnhart was a candidate for the job. Sources also named Tulsa University athletic director Bubba Cunningham as a candidate, but university officials declined to comment on the situation in a statement released by the university's athletic department in late October.

The next athletic director will replace Lew Perkins, who retired in early September.

Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little says the search for Perkins' replacement would be done by the end of the spring semester.

LJWorld.com staff contributed to this story.