BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The 12th game turns 7 years old as a permanent part of college football. If the idea was to schedule Jackson State, Troy, South Alabama and Middle Tennessee, as Mississippi State does in 2012 to be bowl eligible, the 12th game works marvelously.

Mississippi State is hardly alone in raising ticket prices over the years only to schedule more cupcakes. The sport is filled with undesirable schedules and recently lost a cool future series between the Big Ten and Pac-12.

How the 12th game happened reflects the history of college football: More money was desired. Shocking, I know.

Spending on college sports was accelerating at an unsustainable rate (which is still the case today). So the NCAA Board of Directors concluded in 2005 to play one more game each year. Reform-minded advocates, college football coaches and the ACC objected, citing the physical and mental toll on the players.

Jon Solomon is a columnist for The Birmingham News. Join him for live web chats on college sports on Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

But hey, untapped revenue is like undrilled oil. Drilling for oil won the NCAA vote 8-2 with one abstention.

For schools with 100,000-seat stadiums, the 12th game was worth approximately $3 million beginning in 2006. Today, the high-end value for the 12th game is more like $4 to $6 million.

"I would understand if the media misinterpreted the motive for the 12th game as a long-term fiscal fix, but I would be disappointed if athletics administrators saw it as anything but a short-term salve," NCAA President Myles Brand wrote in 2005. "I believe most administrators and presidents understand that the decision is not a panacea for fiscal responsibility."

No, that's why a playoff is coming. But I digress.

To be fair, there are some quality games due to the 12th game. Alabama-Michigan may not have occurred without the 12th game creating value for lucrative neutral-site games that many fans have no shot of attending.

Alabama's seven-game home schedule features one team that had a winning conference record in 2011: Western Kentucky. The Crimson Tide's home opponents -- Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Western Carolina and Auburn -- went a combined 17-40 in their respective leagues last year.

This is no problem for Alabama, which sells out of season tickets these days. Supply and demand works in Tuscaloosa at the moment.

But it's worth watching what nonconference schedules across the country will look like in the future. Come 2014, strength of schedule will play a role with the playoff selection committee.

Will conferences truly beef up their opponents? More likely, they'll try to manipulate the system the way college basketball teams sometimes exploit the Ratings Percentage Index. The goal: Beef up the bottom teams so their strength of schedule is more palatable to the conference's elite programs when they play.

There's a science in gaming the system. Considering how the 12th game has gamed fans, bet on manipulation.

Since the 12th game started in 2006, the Pac-12 (with nine league games) has produced the most challenging nonconference schedule. Forty-five percent of the Pac-12's nonconference games have come against BCS-conference opponents, just ahead of the ACC (43 percent).

The SEC has played 29 percent of its nonconference schedule against BCS schools. That's in the neighborhood of the Big 12 (28 percent) and Big Ten (30 percent).

Not surprisingly, the SEC has lived up to its stay-at-home reputation, which is worth millions of dollars by playing an extra home game. Since 2006, the SEC has played only 17 percent of its nonconference games at opposing campuses. True road games for other leagues: Big Ten, 22 percent; Big 12, 25 percent; ACC, 29 percent; Pac-12, 33 percent.

The SEC's road games in 2012 reflect the "challenges" the league usually tackles on opposing campuses: Texas A&M at SMU; Vanderbilt at Northwestern and Wake Forest; Missouri at Central Florida; Mississippi State at Troy; Ole Miss at Tulane; South Carolina at Clemson; Florida at Florida State; and Kentucky at Louisville.

One reason the NCAA used in justifying the 12th game was fans wanted more football.

True. But did they really understand what they would be paying to watch?

Write Jon at jsolomon@bhamnews.com. Follow him at twitter.com/jonsol.