The current 15-team Northern 4-A League would be reduced to 10 teams, under a proposal recommended by a Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association realignment committee during the NIAA Board of Control meeting last week.

That report came amidst speculation that realignment -- scheduled to take effect in the 2008-2009 school year -- would be delayed because of the numerous problems facing the realignment committee.

Which explains why one of the seven other proposals submitted was that the committee leave the present NIAA classification structure unchanged.

The realignment committee consists of Elmer Porter of Eureka, Jeff Newton of Lake Mead Christian Academy, Russell Fecht of Pershing County Lovelock, Bill Darrow of Needles (Calif.), Charlie Walsh of Sparks, Rod Adams of Overton Moapa Valley, Washoe County School District director of student services Eddie Bonine, Board of Control chairman and Clark County School District athletic director Ray Mathis, and Bret Walter of Las Vegas Faith Lutheran.

The Board of Control hopes to make a final determination on the proposal -- and the proposal to make no changes -- during or before its meeting June 13-14 in Reno.

In the interim, it will meet Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in Las Vegas, and March 7-8 in Reno.

Regardless, Brian Hug, the athletics director at Pahrump Valley High School -- a Southern Nevada Class 3-A League member -- isn't bothered by the possibility of all that proposed movement.

"With our situation, we will travel no matter what classification we are in," said the first year AD and Trojans' football coach. Pahrump Valley, in most sports, already compete against Nevada Class 4-A schools and higher classification opponents from California, Utah, Arizona and occasionally, Hawaii.

There is no easy way to realign schools in Nevada because of the considerable travel distances involved.

Pahrump Valley is perhaps the more severely affected school because of its location in Nye County (60 miles west of Las Vegas).

For instance, consider the mileage for 3-A league competition.

From Pahrump Valley to:

Mesquite (Virgin Valley) is 330 miles round trip

Overton (Moapa Valley) is 260 miles round trip

Boulder City is 170 miles round trip

Las Vegas Faith Lutheran is 112 miles round trip.

Two football games are played at home each fall against Southern 3-A opponents; two are on the road.

This season, the Trojans go to Virgin Valley (tonight) and Faith Lutheran (Oct. 13). Moapa Valley is at Pahrump Oct. 20 and Boulder City visits Oct. 26.

However, league home-and-home series in volleyball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, baseball and fast-pitch softball, are played each school year.

Pahrump Valley's wrestling team usually has just one home meet against its 3-A opponents, with the Trojans traveling for up to four other 3-A matches, as well as to Arizona, Utah and northern Nevada for multi-team invitational tournaments.

In soccer, there are added trips to Ely White Pine and Las Vegas The Meadows for the boys this fall; The Meadows disbanded its girls team in September. White Pine and Meadows are Class 2-A schools, but the Bobcats and Mustangs have soccer teams which need a place to compete.

A central booking agency does PVHS schedules in boys and girls cross country, boys and girls track, and boys and girls golf. Two, sometimes three, wrestling teams meet in one gym weekly for Southern 3-A league matches.

Tonopah, Beatty and Round Mountain are in Nye County, an area which covers 18,000 square miles, so just traveling to play each other is not an easy experience (Tonopah to Beatty is a 186-mile round trip, for instance).

"If we are moved back to 2-A, that means all we do is work that much harder to compete," said Curt McElroy, the athletics director at Tonopah, which was moved from 2-A to 1-A in 2004 -- and has won back-to-back eight-man football titles.

Under the main proposal, which contains many of the elements of the plan submitted by Winnemucca Lowry High School and originally authored by NevadaPrep.com, the Northern 4-A would become a single-division, 10-team league.

Hug, South Tahoe, Reno Wooster, Fallon and Elko, the Northern 4-A's five smallest public schools, would be reassigned to the 3-A, although all schools in the state would have the option of petitioning the NIAA to move up or down in a specific sport.

The NIAA had insisted that the base leagues remain intact for all sports, making only two exceptions -- allowing Incline and Yerington to play football in the 2-A and compete in the 3-A in all other sports.

However, if a school submits such a petition, it would have to do so with the understanding that a move upward or downward in a specific sport would be for the entire four-year realignment cycle, which is to begin in the fall of 2008.