The longest season. (Insider College Football).(Brief Article)

When is more not better? An ongoing series of Mike DuBose coaching seminars would be one illustration.

Here's a real-life example: The 2002 season, when the NCAA will allow all schools to schedule 12 regular-season games instead of the usual 11 for the first time. Why? Because there is one more Saturday than usual between the usual start of the season (the last Saturday in August) and the end (the last Saturday in November). This calendar anomaly also will occur in 2003, '08, '13, '14 and '19; schools can schedule 12 games those years as well.

This is bad news for coaches and players. With schools limited to 85 scholarships, depth already is an issue. By stretching the regular season by a game, that already suspect depth will be further reduced.

"We are adding games and reducing practice time. And not only are we reducing practice time, but we also have reduced scholarships," says Northwestern coach Randy Walker. "Those effects--less players, less practice, more games--that's not good. If we want to keep adding games, we need to look at personnel. Adding scholarships is a dirty word. We all are about cost containment."

He's right. But though NCAA legislation allows schools to play 12 games only in years in which the calendar is accommodating, it's plausible to think 12-game seasons could become the norm. Why? Money.

For the next two years, athletic departments are going to get an injection of extra cash from a 12th game. Once they have had a taste of that cash, it will be hard to be weaned from it.

"A year from now, as people begin to look toward their '04-'05 budgets, they will see this gap created," says LSU senior associate athletics director Dan Radakovich. "At that point, they'll say, `We need to be able to do this.' I don't know what the quid pro quo will be from the football side of things, but there is a real possibility of a groundswell of support to continue to play the 12 games ..."