White River Junction — There is a big hurdle to climb, but if the Vermont Interscholastic Football League had its druthers, the 32 schools playing football will be realigned for next season, and steps would be taken to move to a one-year cycle from the existing two.

At Tuesday’s meeting at Hartford High School, representatives from 31 schools learned that criteria for realignment will be based on number of boys in the school, number of boys playing football and won-loss record.

But the topic that drew most of the discussion was the proposal to get away from a two-year cycle.

“That’s what we hear you guys wanted,” said Sean Farrell, the VIFL’s treasurer and scheduler.

That may be, but some of those in attendance thought that the two-year cycle was not good for rivalries.

“I certainly don’t think it’s good for my school,” said Tim Brown, the AD at Bennington’s Mount Anthony Union High School, citing the long road trips his school has to make. Brown was told by Farrell that mileage would always be considered.

Other comments centered about home-and-home games that will be lost if there is no two-year cycle.

There was some concern about the loss of rivalry games if there is just a one-year cycle.

Farrell assured everyone that the rivalries would not be disturbed. “In fact, the rivalries make it easier for us,” he said.

All of this is expected to be sorted out on Dec. 6, when the ADs from the football-playing schools meet with the Vermont Principals Association in Montpelier.

“We hope to come out of that meeting with a new realignment, so Sean (Farrell) can get working on the schedule,” VIFL executive secretary Bob Hingston said.

“We know it’s going to be hard to satisfy all 32 teams.”

Another area the VIFL would like approved deals with discouraging teams that want to petition down after the state is realigned. Should the VPA approve the petition, the VIFL would like to see the petitioning teams lose eligibility to play in the postseason for one year. There was some grumbling on this, but no one stood up and spoke against it.

There was also some clarification in the rule regarding breaking ties, as the Vermont football handbook and the VIFL bylaws do not quite agree.

Currently, the VIFL tie-breaking rules for Divisions I and III are overall quality point rating (QPR), head-to-head, record against common opponents, win-loss percentage and, finally, a coin flip. Because Division II has just nine teams, the VIFL rules are a little different in that the tie-breaking criteria is just QPR and head-to-head.

There were several awards presented, with the three state champions — Hartford, Windsor and Bellows Falls — all receiving large bowls. Sportsmanship awards were presented to Bellows Falls in the south and BFA-St. Albans in the north.

There were also pats on the backs for the handling of the three state tournament games at Rutland High on Nov. 13 and the North-South Game last Saturday at Castleton University.

Poultney’s Dave Capman said the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl game will again return to Castleton next August, and BF’s Bob Lockeby and Jason Thomas had already applied to coach the Vermont team. He encouraged others to apply.

Mickey Heinecken, who is the face of the North-South Game, said he was happy that he already had coaches applying. “In other years, I had to go and recruit coaches,” he said.

Film exchange is always a tedious topic, and it was once again. Rutland’s Mike Norman wanted the games to be on his computer when he went to his office at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“Let’s send those by 6 p.m. Saturday,” he said.

That brought some grumbling, and Norman changed his request to midnight Saturday, then to 6 a.m. Sunday.

When the discussion died, a date a little later in the week was selected.