Conversely, Weber State had by far the best Utah numbers among the major sports: 89 percent of football players graduated; 86 percent of men's basketball players; and 92 percent of women's basketball players.

"The biggest thing is communication from the coaches to the athletes," said WSU athletic director and former football coach Jerry Graybeal. "We can't provide lip service to our athletes. We really have to be there for them."

Graybeal said when he was coaching the Wildcats he had his first-year players — freshmen and transfers — carry an attendance card with them to classes during their first semesters. Instructors were asked to sign the card, and Graybeal could then chart the progress of his players.

The high percentage of local athletes at Weber State also may be a factor in retaining students at the school.

Next to the BYU football program, seven other sports have graduation rates of less than 60 percent, according to the NCAA: Utah football and men's basketball; BYU baseball and men's golf; Utah State football; and Southern Utah softball and women's tennis.

"It's so preliminary, it's going to take awhile to absorb all the data," said Utah athletic director Chris Hill. "It's hard right now to get the significance in terms of comparison with the different sports and other schools."

Hill is in favor of getting as much information as possible to see how his and other schools are moving their student-athletes toward graduation.

"When you take the traditional graduation rate, along with the APR (Academic Progress Rate) and the GSR and put it all together, eventually you'll see if there is a problem," Hill said. "What I think is happening with all these kinds of data points is that people are paying more attention to it, and that's a good thing."

Hill was happy that several of his programs have 100 percent graduation rates, including men's and women's skiing, men's golf, women's gymnastics, soccer, tennis and volleyball. He believes there are reasons the numbers are lower for football and basketball, which both checked in at 57 percent.

"It's the classic kid that leaves before he gets his degree to try to make it in the pros and doesn't make it and then doesn't graduate within the six years."

Hill is also aware there are other factors such as LDS missions that affect Ute athletes. He gave an example of the men's basketball class that came to Utah in 1995 to show how the numbers can be skewed.

Michael Doleac was an honor student but went to the NBA out of college. Although he came back to the U. to eventually finish his biology degree, he didn't do it within the NCAA's six-year period and thus wouldn't count in the GSR numbers released Monday.