It might be a mere delay, but for now it’s a denial.

The proposal to expand Maine high school football to four classes next season was shelved Thursday, when the Maine Principals’ Association decided against it for the next two-year classification cycle.

After nearly a year of meetings, discussions, surveys and other solicitation of feedback, the committee determined that there was not adequate time to put a new, satisfactory system in place for the 2011 season.

With the MPA likely to accept the committee’s recommendation, a fourth class would not be added until at least 2013. Each conference follows a two-year, home-and-home schedule.

Earlier this year, MPA officials sent a survey to every school in the state with a football program.

More than three-quarters of those schools returned the survey, and early feedback (72 percent) favored the switch from a Class A-B-C format to an AA-A-B-C nomenclature.

That momentum swung in the other direction when objectors brought attention to a variety of thorny issues. Among them:

— Disagreement on whether to divide Class AA into two nine-team leagues or three six-team divisions;

— Assignment of new and struggling programs to a division in which they would almost certainly struggle, based solely on enrollment;

— Significant increases in some teams’ travel time;

— The loss of several natural rivalries.

While smaller Class A schools stood to benefit from a lateral move into a new Class A, larger Class B and C schools were concerned about competitive balance if forced to move up.

Two-time defending Eastern Class B champion Leavitt was one of the schools ticketed for Class A. So were recent lower-to-middle-of-the-pack teams Belfast and Fryeburg and relative newcomers Camden Hills and Nokomis.

“I’m worried about some of those other schools in our league,” Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said last summer. “(The proposal did) a good job at taking care of the lower end of Class A. If you’re Westbrook, Marshwood, Mt. Blue, you’re in great shape. I’m not saying nothing needed to be done there, because they needed to do something. But now take care of everybody else.”

In a subtle change that will put some teams on the move, the football committee adjusted the enrollment cutoff numbers for each of the three traditional classes.

Class A would include schools with 775 or more students. Class B will encompass schools of 500 to 774 students. Class C covers 499 and under.

MPA members will vote on those numbers at the group’s 2011 spring conference. If that change is approved, schools then would be slotted based on their April 1, 2011 enrollments.

Based on 2010 numbers, Mt. Blue (746 students) and Brewer would have the option of playing in Eastern Class B.

Hotly debated and either wholeheartedly supported or vehemently disputed — each reaction typically proportional to each program’s specific interests — the four-class system was the brainchild of Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin eight years ago.

Long outnumbered by the likes of Bangor, Edward Little and Lewiston in Class A, Mt. Blue would become the big kid on the block in the Class B division of the Pine Tree Conference.

“I know in every group somebody’s going to be the biggest and somebody’s going to be the smallest,” Parlin said recently.

The new Oceanside High School, formed by the impending merger of Georges Valley and Rockland, also would join Eastern B along with Old Town.

Morse would move to Western B, while Winslow would be poised to drop from Eastern B to Eastern C.

In an interesting Western Maine twist, Mountain Valley — which just won its fourth Class B title in seven years — would qualify for a move to Western C.

Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward acknowledged before the 2010 season that he would be against the Falcons petitioning up to a higher class, no matter how the four-class vote fell.

Under current MPA rules, a school choosing to play in a higher class is locked in for the next four years. That’s a quandary at Mountain Valley, where enrollment numbers continue to stagnate with the economy and the uncertainty in the pulp and paper industry.

“We could (petition up), but the problem with that is that your numbers are down, and if you get a couple of kids injured you end up having a longer season than you have to,” Aylward said.

Wells, the team Mountain Valley defeated in the Western B final, could join Mountain Valley in Class C.

Westbrook and Marshwood would mirror Mt. Blue’s move, sliding from Western A to Western B.

Some of the staunchest supporters of a four-class system were coaches of the smaller schools in Class C.

The potential addition of Mountain Valley and Wells to a West league that already features Lisbon and Yarmouth in the neighborhood of 400 students is certain to raise some eyebrows.

“Our enrollment is about 230 right now,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton noted during the four-class discussion. “I never even understood how Madison and Carrabec got to have a co-operative team and stay in our league. If I’d known we could do that, I would have combined with Monmouth.”

With the number of Maine high schools playing football now approaching 80, MPA officials said they will explore other options for a fourth class in the future.

Maine scaled back from four classes to the current alignment of three in 1987.