With a bachelor's degree fast becoming the standard requirement for achieving success in the modern economy, college enrollment is increasing rapidly nationwide. State funding for colleges and universities continues to subsidize the cost of educating state residents, but spiraling expenditures in other areas are straining the ability of states to maximize their higher education investments in the face of growing demand. As states move to further quantify the quality and efficiency of public colleges and universities, they may require students to take greater responsibility for efficiently obtaining an undergraduate degree. One approach to ensuring that states fund colleges and universities efficiently is to encourage each student to complete his or her degree without taking an excess of courses beyond those required for that degree. In doing so, the states may be able to save money while potentially increasing graduation rates for undergraduate students. This paper summarizes the efforts of several Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states to reduce excess undergraduate credit hours by limiting state support for those hours or by providing incentives for students to complete their degrees in an efficient manner. In each state, the goal is the same: to reduce the cost to the state of providing affordable undergraduate education for state residents while simultaneously improving completion rates among undergraduate students, and to ensure that state funding for undergraduate education is targeted to efficiency and state needs.