Notre Dame, SEC also win in classroom

• Notre Dame has a 97 percent grad rate, best of teams ranked in the USA TODAY Sports coaches poll
• Five ranked SEC teams are in the top 13 by Graduation Success Rate
• Football and men's basketball graduation rates are at their highest levels ever

Not so long ago, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick was at football practice when a coach — along with the players, Swarbrick says, he'll remain nameless to protect the innocent — singled out a player during the post-practice huddle.

"Hey, I saw you got a B on your chemistry exam," the coach said, as related by Swarbrick. "I wanted to tell you how proud I am. I know how tough that class is for you and what a stretch it is."

Then the coach turned to two other players: "I saw you got C's. You're every bit as smart as him. You need to work harder."

"The point is," Swarbrick said, "he knew what every one of them got on their exams."

Sure, it warms an athletics director's heart. So does news like Thursday's, when the NCAA released the latest Graduation Success Rate figures. Notre Dame's football graduation rate of 97% led all teams currently in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, and tied for first (with Northwestern) among all Bowl Subdivision schools.

"I'm biased," Swarbrick said, "but I'd argue that's every bit as hard as winning the national championship on the field … because everybody's trying to win it."

Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference's football dominance might extend to the classroom, too, at least as measured by the GSR. Of teams currently in the coaches poll, the SEC had five of the top 13 when ordered by GSR. Football heavyweights LSU (No 6, 77% GSR), Alabama (No. 7, 75%) and Florida (No. 8, 75%) led the way for the SEC. Those teams are all in the top six of the coaches poll.

"It sends exactly the right message," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "There's some illusion out there that being a great athlete and being a great student are incompatible.

"Those institutions prove exactly the opposite. … When you've got whole teams performing at that level, it sends exactly the right message to the whole world."

Then there's Connecticut basketball, with a graduation rate of 11%, which ranked ahead of only Chicago State (9%) and was a 14-point decrease from last year. For all teams, the graduation rate for men's basketball was 74%. Connecticut is already ineligible for postseason play this season because of poor performance in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate.

Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford and chair of the NCAA's Committee on Academic Progress, said Connecticut's graduation rates are a reflection of the APR scores.

"It starts with who you admit into your program, making sure you admit student-athletes who can handle the academic requirements to remain eligible," Harrison said. "The institutions that have succeeded have put some thought into providing the academic support that student-athletes need to meet the challenges."

The GSR measures graduation over a six-year period. The figures released Thursday are for students who entered college in 2005. Unlike the federal graduation rate, the GSR takes into account transfer students and students who leave school while in good academic standing.

The figures also made for another interesting comparison of a marquee matchup. Notre Dame, No. 5 in the coaches poll, takes on No. 7 Oklahoma in a game with implications in the BCS race. While Notre Dame ranks No. 1 in GSR among teams in the coaches poll, Oklahoma is 25th, with a graduation rate of 47%.. Oklahoma's overall ranking was 220th of 236 football schools in Division I and last among teams in the leagues with automatic berths in the BCS.

The latest graduation rate for all FBS football programs is 70%, an increase of one point from last year. The rate for men's basketball programs rose six points. For both sports, the rates are the highest in the 11 years the GSR has been compiled. In that time, the rate for men's basketball has increased 18 percentage points; football's rate has increased seven points.

Overall, the graduation rate for NCAA athletes who entered college from 2002-2005 was 80%. The GSR for the 2005 class was 81%, a decrease of one percentage point from last year.

Graduation rates for schools in the current USA TODAY Sports Top 25