For the third consecutive year, the NCAA and USA Today are recognizing NCAA colleges and universities that graduate student-athletes at the highest rates. This year, 15 NCAA member schools have been named as recipients of the USA Today-NCAA Academic Achievement Awards.

Each institution will receive $20,000 to use for additional scholarships, to begin or support existing programs or for other purposes.

The academic achievement awards are funded by a gift of $2.9 million to the NCAA from USA Today. The gift was made to establish a program -- the only national awards program of its kind -- that recognizes colleges and universities in three categories: institutions with the highest student-athlete graduation rates above the average of the student body, institutions with the greatest increase in percentage of student-athletes graduating over the previous cohort and institutions graduating the highest percentage of student-athletes.

The winning institutions, chosen based upon graduation rates data for the previous academic years, are listed in the accompanying charts.

The schools will be recognized at a reception and banquet at the USA Today headquarters in McLean, Virginia, November 7. NCAA President Myles Brand and Craig A. Moon, president and publisher of USA Today, will present the awards during the event.

USA Today's $2.9 million gift is the largest gift the NCAA has ever received. Of that amount, $300,000 will be disbursed through this program in annual awards to winning institutions for the next three years. The balance of the money will fund the annual awards banquet and space in USA Today highlighting the scholarship winners each year and publicizing other NCAA programs.