In a move supported by the ISU athletic department, the NCAA Division I Management Council passed legislation Monday that would allow schools to add a 12th football game starting in 2006.

Although the NCAA Board of Directors must approve and finalize the plan, ISU Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde said he was pleased by the development.

“We supported that legislation from the beginning, I think,” Van De Velde said. “We polled our student-athletes in the Big 12, and around 75 percent approved of playing another game.

“[The players] would rather play an extra game than practice anyway.”

By not adding another weekend, the 12th game will not lengthen the season, a key factor in the decision according to Van De Velde.

“We were strongly behind [the legislation] as long as the season was kept at its current length,” he said. “That was one of the things that we wanted attached to it, but we looked at a lot of different factors.”

Only one Division I-A conference — the Atlantic Coast Conference — was opposed to adding another game. Concerns about the proposed expansion included such things as an increase in injuries and missed class time.

Ron Wellman, Wake Forest athletic director and chairman of the ACC’s athletic directors, said many of the conference’s concerns dealt with academics.

“We believe the season is long enough at 11 games, and we actually enjoy the bye week,” Wellman said.

Van De Velde said he served on the NCAA Football Issues Committee, which examined many possible effects of adding another game, especially injury rates.

“We looked at all kinds of data and a lot of it came back positive,” Van De Velde said.

“Injury rates were about the same in regards to games versus practice and, actually, in some cases it came back that practice injury rates were higher than those from in games.”

Van De Velde also said class time would not be much of a factor because the travel is much less frequent than in basketball, and most games take place on Saturdays.

With one more game during the nonconference season, increased flexibility could lead to improved opponents early in the year.

“Absolutely it could improve schedules,” Van De Velde said. “Obviously you don’t want to overschedule, but with more flexibility it will help with attracting opponents both home and away.”

ISU football coach Dan McCarney was unavailable for comment.

The NCAA Board of Directors meets on April 28 and will make the final decision on the proposal.

— The Associated Press contributed to this article.