John Oliver's critique of the Miss America pageant last night wasn't limited to butt glue and swimsuit competitions — the host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight" also included a scathing appraisal of the pageant's scholarship claims in his roast.

The main bone of contention: Miss America claims it has made available $45 million in scholarships to contestants through its local, state and national pageants. But the staff of Oliver's "Last Week Tonight," a news satire show, couldn't even find evidence that the pageant had distributed $4 million in scholarships. Today the Linwood-based Miss America Organization responded to Oliver's criticisms.

One of the examples given by the show was a $54,000 scholarship to Troy University, which is counted by the Miss Alabama pageant in its scholarship total, which is in turn used to tabulate Miss America's $45 million scholarship total. Except the Troy University number was really marked as about $2.6 million, because the pageant multiplied the $54,000 by 48, the total number of contestants who could potentially win the money. In truth, Oliver said, no one got the $54,000 scholarship at all. So both of the numbers — $54,000 or $2.6 million — were hypotheticals, not actual money awarded to contestants.

“John Oliver reaffirmed that the Miss America Organization (MAO) is the largest scholarship organization for women when he stated the number of scholarship dollars claimed 'is more than any other women-only scholarship we could find,'" the Miss America Organization's statement began.

As for the $45 million part?

"We highlight the impressive, generous $45 million in scholarships made available in an effort to honor every one of our academic partners nationwide who make available cash and in-kind financial opportunities to the MAO and young women who participate in the program," the statement continued.

Yet what about the scholarships that are counted, but not awarded? "As with any scholarship," the organization's statement said, "the full amount awarded may not always be used as recipients’ plans change or evolve." That, however, does not account for the multiplication of scholarship money by the number of possible winners, which, as Oliver points out, inflates the dollar amount ... even when no one wins the scholarship in question.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup. Find NJ.com Entertainment on Facebook.