Salem and Pulaski County high schools currently compete for state championships at the Group AA level.

Those days could soon be over.

On Tuesday in Charlottesville, the Virginia High School League more fully unveiled a proposal released last week to divide its member schools into five state championship divisions, beginning with the 2011-12 school year.

If approved, the plan would scrap the current three-classification system that has been in place since 1970-71 and completely alter the way schools qualify teams for postseason competition in athletic and academic endeavors.

Alignments that VHSL schools currently have at the district, regional and state level could completely change under the proposal based on projected enrollment divisions.

For example, Salem and Pulaski County -- which now compete as rivals in the River Ridge District and in Region IV of Group AA -- would be placed in different divisions based on the Sept. 30, 2007, enrollment figures the VHSL is using in its proposal.

Salem, with 1,289 students, would be placed in Division 3 -- where most of Timesland's 45 public high schools would fall. Pulaski County, with 1,506, would be placed in Division 4 along with schools such as Patrick Henry and William Fleming.

That part of the VHSL proposal was released last week, but more details emerged Tuesday.

Among the highlights:

The VHSL released a breakdown showing where each of its 312 member schools would be grouped within each of the five new divisions.

The league issued recommendations for schools to follow in determining how teams should qualify and be seeded for postseason play.

VHSL Executive Director Ken Tilley said the VHSL Rating Scale would no longer be used by the league office to determine at-large berths and seedings for football playoffs.

Tilley added that subsections within each division could be allowed to add more rounds of the football playoffs to accommodate more teams.

Several sports and academic activities would crown fewer than five state champions, depending on the number of schools participating statewide.

The VHSL will hold a series of two-hour question-and-answer sessions -- including one Nov. 18 at Salem High School -- concerning the proposal.

Tilley said he is uncertain which enrollment figures would be used to determine the new divisions when the plan is scheduled to go into effect in 2011.

Tilley said the proposal might not come up for a vote for at least 12 months.

"We'll have a chance to talk at the December executive committee meeting," Tilley said. "I've had people say, 'Please don't rush this. Please don't vote on this at the December meeting.' "

The VHSL executive committee -- a 29-member voting board composed primarily of administrators from high schools across the state -- is the governing body of public high school activities in Virginia.

Tilley said the executive committee will vote whether to approve the proposal, but he added that any legislation that would cause a change to the VHSL Handbook -- which this plan would require -- could be subject to a two-thirds vote of the entire VHSL membership.

In other words, the schools themselves could override an executive committee vote.

Tilley said to expect plenty of discussion before any vote is taken. "I don't know that we would have to do it in the fall," of 2009, he said.

Tilley said member schools asked the VHSL to craft a plan to reorganize its classifications for two major reasons: to ensure that schools would compete for state championships against others of more similar size, and to give schools more flexibility in regular season scheduling, thus reducing in-season travel.

For example, the smallest Group A school with varsity athletics is Highland, with 105 students in grades 9-12. The largest Group A school is Nandua, with an enrollment of 736 -- more than seven times Highland's size.

Patrick Henry and William Fleming currently are in the Western Valley District, in which they send their athletic teams on required 2 ¹₂-hour bus rides to Halifax County. Schools currently must play each opponent in their district -- assigned by the VHSL -- to be eligible for postseason playoffs.

Under the new proposal, Patrick Henry and Fleming would be free to play schools closer to Roanoke and still qualify for the postseason.

However, scheduling opponents is a two-way street. Schools have to find willing partners.

Alleghany High School -- which is in the Blue Ridge District along with Roanoke Valley schools Northside, Lord Botetourt and William Byrd -- would be a long bus ride for many teams.

"I'm afraid if schools don't want to play us, it could present some scheduling problems," Alleghany Athletic Director John Hutchison said.

"No one likes it in the sense that it's doing away with the districts. We've got a good working relationship with the other schools in the Blue Ridge District. But what if you get a different principal or athletic director down the road and they say, 'Nah, don't want you.' "

Tilley admitted that there is concern that some schools could get the cold shoulder from a majority of nearby opponents, resulting in major scheduling headaches.

"I'm not naive enough to think that if it were entirely voluntary there could be [problems]," he said.

Under such circumstances, Tilley said the VHSL still would have the power to step in and orchestrate placement.

"Some people are not sure that would actually take place," he said. "There's another school of thought that maintains if that is an issue to the detriment of the plan, then you could always freeze schools for a period of time to let it settle."

The VHSL's proposal Tuesday suggested the following criteria for advancing to postseason play, in order: overall regular season won-lost record; winning percentage within the division; winning percentage within the section.

Competitive cheerleading was not specified in the proposal.

The number of state champions in academic activities would be as follows: scholastic bowl (5), forensics (5), theater (4), yearbook (4), debate (3), magazine (3), creative writing (1), news magazine (1).

Officials present when the plan was unveiled said there were few questions asked Tuesday. Expect that to change when the VHSL brings its plan to Salem on Nov. 18.

"I don't think they really addressed the numbers issue," Hutchison said. "Look at Division 3, for instance. You're going from 800 to 1,300. That's still a pretty daggone big gap.

"I'm glad they're looking at going away from three divisions, but it definitely needs some tweaking and adjusting. I don't think this is the plan to do it."