NCAA football's new math?

It certainly won't be a shock if the NCAA proves beyond a reasonable doubt it is a hypocritical, money-grubbing organization that pays little more than lip service to its academic mission.

But we are interested in hearing how – in its own defense – it attempts to explain the following mathematical formula: 7 is greater than 58.

That's what the 18 university presidents who make up the NCAA's Board of Directors will have to do Thursday in Indianapolis if they decide to be stooges for their conference commissioners and permanently expand the Division I-A football regular season from 11 to 12 games.

These are the same presidents, of course, who supposedly stand adamantly against the creation of a I-A playoff system because it would extend the season and cause student-athletes to miss class time.

But a playoff system, featuring say, just eight teams, would add seven total games to the season.

An extra game for all 117 I-A teams would result in a minimum of 58 additional games.

Perhaps the learned folks at the NCAA are intelligent enough to explain how seven more games is an assault on academics and would put undue strain and stress on the student-athletes but an additional 58 is no big deal at all.

We are sure it has nothing to do with all that ticket, parking and concession revenue those additional home games would create.

Legislative issues within the NCAA get scant publicity, which is understandable. Most are arcane, boring and not simple to grasp. But this one is as clear as day.

It's about shameless duplicity, greed, ego and nothing else.

Big 12 Conference commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who sponsored the legislation, reasons that the extra game won't really "extend" the season because the 12th game will just take place on what would have been an off weekend for the kids.

That's nice.

As for the claim that this is just bureaucrats riding their student-athlete work force for more cash, well, hey, that's just a pleasant byproduct.

"For schools struggling to build financially, we believe the 12th game will be a benefit," Weiberg says.

You can see why the Big 12 is behind it; the extra game ought to completely cover Colorado's hooker budget.

Of course, we expect such pathetic profiteering from the athletic directors and commissioners who gave us the BCS, Tuesday night football, professor Jim Harrick Jr., the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl, sneaker logos on uniforms, Baylor men's basketball, Idaho in the Sun Belt Conference, sorry graduation rates and a 2004 calendar year that alone saw a quarter of the SEC convicted for major rules violations.

Those guys are total hucksters who care only about the bottom line. Tellingly, the 12th-game legislation passed their esteemed committee without a single, solitary word of debate.

But the final say in the NCAA goes to a group of university presidents, who are supposed to be better than that.

Led by NCAA head Myles Brand, these people love blowing smoke about academic missions and ethical high grounds, waxing poetic from their Ivy Towers.

And then they roll over in silence when a potential new revenue stream is discovered.

The infuriating thing for the fans, players and coaches is the addition of the 12th game is a serious blow against a real playoff system. Almost no one but the conference commissioners favor the BCS.

If Thursday's legislation passes, college football gets stuck with a system in which Auburn can go 13-0 behind three top-10 NFL draft picks – and not even have the chance to compete for a national title.

All in exchange for an extra home game with Louisiana-Monroe.

"If you talk to the athletes, they would prefer to see a little more competition and a little less practice," Weiberg reasoned in support of the 12th game.

Actually, talk to the athletes and they want a playoff, like Divisions I-AA, II and III. The players don't seem to buy the lie that the SEC cares more about academics than the I-AA Patriot League.

But the commissioners love power, and the BCS system gives them that. Even though there is more money to be made with a playoff system, the commissioners would rather have a smaller revenue pie if it means they control the cutting knife.

The powers that be always have been able to hold their critics at arm's length on moral grounds.

The kids, they argue, can not handle seven more games.

Fifty-eight apparently is no problem.

Maybe it's new math. Looks like the same old bought and sold hypocrisy though.