When the NCAA approved Division I-A football schools to play a 12-game schedule, athletic directors everywhere cheered.

Especially at most of the schools in BCS conferences, where an extra game, usually scheduled at home, means at least an extra $3 million.

But the one thing the NCAA didn't do was adjust the length of the season, meaning that schools now have just one open date instead of two.

This season in the SEC, there are three schools -- Alabama, Auburn and Vanderbilt -- that play 12 straight weeks with the lone open date coming on the last weekend of the regular season on Nov. 25.

Georgia will play 11 consecutive games before a Nov. 18 open date before a Nov. 25 game against Georgia Tech. Ole Miss and Mississippi State play 10 straight games before a Nov. 11 open date leading to the last two games for each team.

The team with the earliest open date is Arkansas. The Razorbacks play four games before a Sept. 30 open date.

Naturally, the schedule won't stay like this every year. The SEC office will rotate open dates so the same teams don't get stuck with marathon schedules every season before getting an open date.

But for now, coaches Mike Shula of Alabama, Tommy Tuberville of Auburn and Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt are preparing for this season's long grind.

"How you handle it depends on your depth and how you adjust your practices," Tuberville said. "After eight or nine games, even if you're physically capable of playing a tough opponent, mentally it's just a drain on players and coaches.

"So this year, for the first time, we practice on Tuesday and Thursday mornings instead of the afternoons. We take Monday off, have fresh legs for the Tuesday morning practice, the players have the afternoon for academics and study hall and then they don't come back to practice until Wednesday at 3:30. Thursday morning is more of a walkthrough anyway to make corrections."

Tuberville said he got the idea from talking to several pro teams. He thought it fit his team, because there are many classes Tuesday and Thursday afternoons that his players needed to take that weren't available in the mornings.

"We have breakfast together, which in the past we have not," said Tuberville, whose team does have a Thursday night game at South Carolina on Sept. 28 to provide his team a little extra rest. "It gives us more of a team atmosphere."

Shula said he goes back to the mindset he had as an NFL assistant. In his first few years in the league, teams didn't have open dates.

"We talk about this to our players at the start of the season and from then on it becomes a non-issue," Shula said. "You just get it in your mind that you're going to have to grind each and every week."

Johnson views open dates as hit or miss.

"Twelve straight games is extremely tough," Johnson said. "Sometimes, you need an open date to heal injuries. Other times, you hate to have an open date when you're playing well, because it can distract and disrupt you.

"The worst situation is having an open date after the first game. It doesn't do you much good then, because you're not tired then, you're not deep into the season and you still have all those games to play."

Vanderbilt's season starts with a bang at No. 14 Michigan on Saturday, then at Alabama.

"We were approached by ESPN to play Michigan," Johnson said. "We discussed it a lot. ... the coaching staff, the administration, it went back and forth. But when we finally decided to do it, everybody was on board 100 percent. Our guys are excited."