Among The Associated Press' Top 25 football teams, five schools met or exceeded the national average with Notre Dame leading the way at 95 percent. The others were Nebraska at 88 percent, Florida at 80 percent, TCU at 78 percent and Clemson at 77. The NCAA's figure for Florida nearly doubled the 42 percent rate from the federal report.
Three of the Top 25 schools had graduation rates below 50 percent. They were Texas (40 percent), Georgia (41) and California (44).
Top-ranked Ohio State and Southern California, the 2004 national champion, both came in at 55 percent.
Last season's national basketball champion, Florida, received a perfect 100 percent from the NCAA, while last year's women's basketball champion, Maryland, was at 71 percent.
"The good news is we are continuing to make overall progress," Brand said. "The trend lines are up and, with a few exceptions, the academic reforms we are continuing to lay, even in sports like football and basketball which historically lag, are showing progress."
Sports with the highest percentage of graduates were all on the women's side: fencing, field hockey, gymnastics and skiing all had a 94 percent graduation rate. Women's lacrosse was next at 93 percent, and women's swimming was 91 percent. Only one sport, women's bowling, produced a number lower than the national average -- 70 percent.
No men's sport topped 90 percent