USA Today is reporting that graduation levels are up in college athletics.
Nearly four of every five athletes — 79% — who entered Division I colleges and universities from 1999 to 2002 got their degrees within six years, according to an NCAA study released Wednesday. That's up a percentage point from a year earlier.
As it is with any random variable, there are highs and lows.
More than a quarter of the 320-plus men's hoops programs in Division I graduated fewer than 50% of the players who arrived from 1999 to 2002. That includes No. 3 Texas (47%), No. 5 Kentucky (31%) and 10 more of the 25 teams in this week's USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll.
Texas also lagged in football, where the unbeaten Longhorns are pointed toward the Bowl Championship Series title game. Their grad rate was 49% in the sport. Last year's BCS runner-up, Oklahoma, had a 45% rate.
One in six Division I baseball programs came in under 50%, including the winners of the last six national championships: LSU (48%), Fresno State (45%), Oregon State (44%), Texas (37%) and Cal State-Fullerton (29%).
Also among the NCAA findings:
• Schools doing the best job of graduating all their athletes were Notre Dame and Colgate (both 99%) and Navy (98%).
• Schools doing the worst job were Division I newcomer Utah Valley (28%), Chicago State (38%) and Florida A&M (41%).
Of course the NCAA has set new penalties for programs that don't graduate enough players. It's unclear what efforts schools have put in place to drive the positive numbers reported in USA Today. But I'm confident that information will come out in time.