Alex Jensen got his degree after the six-year period because he went on an LDS mission and then went to Europe to play pro basketball. Andre Miller didn't count for the U., even though he finished his degree within five years, because he wasn't on scholarship his first season as a non-qualifier. Greg Barratt transferred after going on an LDS mission and eventually graduated from Cornell, but didn't count for or against the Ute program, according to Hill. Even though the other players were good students, the only player who counted as a graduate was Drew Hansen, who graduated in four years.

Then, there are other factors to consider, like marriage and coaching changes.

"We deal with marriage issue," said Myndee Larsen, associate athletic director at Southern Utah University. "When female athletes get married, sometimes their priorities change. During the time when they looked at their (softball) graduation rate, we went through a coaching change and sometimes that accounts for people leaving. In both softball and tennis, stability is one thing and success is another."

More recently, the T-Birds have had more success in tennis and softball as a member of the Mid Continent Conference, which has added stability to the program.

"We've historically had high graduation rates at Utah State," said Aggie athletic director Randy Spetman. "Part of the problem that you can have in a program is having a poor continuity of coaching staffs that we've had here. That makes it difficult to ensure graduation rates."

Recently, graduation rates have been rising so it's not a red-flag issue for Spetman. "They're not abnormally low, but we're not comfortable until we have a 100 percent graduation rate," he said.

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Contributing: Dick Harmon, Mike Sorensen, Jared Eborn, Jay Hinton.