The NCAA has always defined student athletes as such for a purpose, perhaps their highest standard: to remind players that they are students first and athletes second.

Recent graduation rate figures suggest the NCAA has been doing their job, because they are at an all-time high. The Associated Press reported freshman entering school between the 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 academic years are graduating at an 82 percent clip, a one-point increase from last year and a record high.

"More student-athletes than ever before are earning their college degrees, and we are gratified to see our reform efforts impact the lives of those we serve," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release. "We have even higher expectations for the future, but we are proud of the progress we have made."

Notre Dame lead a group of athletic powerhouses like Alabama, Michigan and Louisville. Of the ten schools that reached the BCS National Championship and the men's and women's Final Four, just one finished with a rate under 70 percent.

In football, despite losing the National Championship game to Alabama, Notre Dame now has a 94 percent graduation rate to brag about. Alabama, which has won the past two championships and set a plethora of players to the NFL, still managed 73 percent rate, three points above the national average.

Also on the rise is graduation rates for black female athletes, up to 78 percent in 2006-2007 from 76 in 2005-2006.

In basketball, Notre Dame managed a 100 percent graduation rate for the women's team, with Connecticut and Louisville following at 92 percent. California's women's teams, along with the men's Witchita State and Michigan teams, came in at 75 percent. Men's champs Louisville had a 70 percent rate and Syracuse was the only Final Four team under the national average at 45 percent.

University of Hartford President Walter Harrison, chair of the Committee on Academic Performance, said team coaches and school administrators were to thank for the improving numbers.

Said Harrison: "What I try to concentrate on when I look at these results is not the numbers but the human lives that have been impacted, the numbers of students who graduate from college now who, 10 or 12 years ago, because we didn't have these policies in place, wouldn't have graduated."

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