Closure could be forthcoming.

Following years of heated discussions, analysis, proposals and votes, the CIF-Southern Section Northern Division’s releaguing dilemma may finally be put to rest this morning during a CIF-SS Council meeting at The Grand Long Beach Event Center.

“We are all going to be so happy when this is over,” Agoura athletic director Jason Rosenthal said.

“Nothing is ever final, and lawyers could get involved, and that would change things. But as far as everyone is concerned, (today’s) vote is final, and we can move on from there.”

According to multiple local athletic directors, officials from the Northern Division’s nine leagues will gather at 9 a.m. to vote on a proposal that lumps Oaks Christian, St. Bonaventure, Grace Brethren and Santa Clara into a football-only privateschool league.

Each Northern Division league gets one vote, with a majority needed to pass the first proposal. If the four-team league doesn’t pass, there will be another vote between three different proposals.

“The first proposal is going to get voted down,” Moorpark athletic director Rob Dearborn said. “As far as what proposal passes after that, I’m not totally sure.”

Oak Park co-athletic director Dick Billingsley agreed with Dearborn that today’s initial proposal has little chance to pass.

“Almost everybody I know of feels that way,” Billingsley said.

The four-team private-school league has been heavily criticized because of the competitive disparity between state powerhouses Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure compared to that of smaller programs at Grace Brethren and Santa Clara.

The other three releaguing proposals include an all-sports swap between Oaks Christian and Calabasas, with Calabasas joining the Tri-Counties Athletic Association, likely as a member of the Tri-Valley League; a football-only swap between Oaks Christian and Calabasas; and a final proposal that creates a nineteam Marmonte League for all sports except football.

In the third proposal Oaks Christian would go to the Marmonte for all sports, Calabasas would only play football in the Tri-Valley, and St. Bonaventure would join the Channel League for all sports.

Marmonte officials have already decided to vote in favor of the all-sports swap between Calabasas and Oaks Christian.

According to Billingsley, during a TCAA meeting Tuesday night, the conference voted 11-2 in favor of the same proposal.

“Marmonte League representatives came to our meeting to assure us, and so that they could be assured, that there was no backroom politicking going on,” Billingsley said. “And if there were any rumors, those would be dispelled during the meeting.

“Basically, everything worked out to be very, very good.”

The TCAA holds a pair of Northern Division votes because it incorporates both the Tri-Valley and Frontier leagues. The TCAA constitution requires that the Tri-Valley and Frontier leagues cast the same vote for releaguing, Billingsley said.

Appeals against any final decision today are expected to be handled immediately on the floor in front of the CIF-SS Council.

Without a releaguing plan in place, creating next year’s sports calendar has been an impossible undertaking, Rosenthal said.

“We’ve been holding off setting our league schedules because we’re waiting to find out who’s going to be in what leagues next year,” he said.

“Everything has been up in the air, and things have been on hold for so long that we’d like to get this over and done with.”