Members of the N.C. High School Athletic Association go through a re-alignment process about as often as the nation waddles through its presidential primaries.

The processes bear some similarity to each other. Each requires skill at herding cats, relatively few people are 100 percent satisfied when it's over, but, no matter what, the process is necessary and inevitably will be completed.

Of course, there are some major differences. Instead of letting the opinion of a few people (think Iowa and New Hampshire) dictate the initial direction, the NCHSAA relies on data, such as geography and attendance figures from all its members. These are fed into a SAS computer program.

The realignment is necessitated by schools' natural increases and decreases in student population. NCHSAA members prefer to play against nearby programs of equal size.

The NCHSAA shipped its initial draft of the proposed 2013-17 realignment to member schools last Wednesday. It's now posted on www.nchsaa.org/ (under "Select A Topic" and then "Realignment").

As one should note from the word "draft," the proposal is far from final. As Winston Churchill would have said: "This is not the end; it's not even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."

Still, some schools already are happy, while some are alarmed.

For Chapel Hill and Orange County, the proposal is close to perfect. For Carrboro, not so much.

East Chapel Hill and Southern Durham would be dropping from the 4A classification for larger schools down to the 3A classification, and so they'd leave the Piedmont Athletic Conference. Cedar Ridge is to move up from the smaller schools' 2A to 3A.

The NCHSAA proposal for a new 3A Conference 10 comprises Cedar Ridge, Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill, Eastern Alamance, Northern Vance, Orange, Southern Durham and Oxford Webb. It would re-unite natural rivals Cedar Ridge and Orange, as well as Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill, and would bring them all into one conference for the first time ever.

"I think from the standpoint of natural rivalries and the tough economic times befalling the school systems, this is a perfect fit," East Chapel Hill director of athletics Ray Hartsfield said. "We cut down on travel, create a very competitive conference, make it more accessible for the fan base of all the schools and create potentially impressive stages for kids to compete in front of."

Geographically, it resembles Chapel Hill Senior High's old "Black and Blue Conference" from the '60s and '70s, shifted slightly westward, with Eastern Alamance, Cedar Ridge and East Chapel Hill replacing Smithfield-Selma, Garner and Cary.

Like Cedar Ridge, Northwood also is moving up to 3A, and the old Carolina-12 Conference appears destined for a breakup. The Chargers would move into a 3A league with Cardinal Gibbons, Lee County, Southern Lee, Union Pines and Western Harnett. That effectively removes Gibbons' Crusaders from the Triangle, while it's a natural fit for Northwood.

Carrboro would be left with a brand new set of conference opponents: Burlington Cummings, Eastern Randolph, Graham, Jordan-Matthews, Providence Grove and Randleman.

That would be a blockbuster football league, with its members accounting for 11 state championships among them.

It also would require more travel for Carrboro. The Jaguars would no longer have nearby Northwood and Cedar Ridge as regular opponents and would instead be heading to Ramseur, Burlington and Siler City.

Randleman is about 55 miles away from Carrboro, and if the Jaguars used chartered helicopters to get there, that distance would seem more manageable. But they use school buses. Those will need about 90 minutes to make the trip one way along about 65 miles of roads.

"My biggest concerns are for the student-athletes," Carrboro athletics director April Ross said. "Leaving a game that started at 8 p.m., needing about 90 minutes for the trip, you're talking about getting back at 11 or later."

It could be worse.

Carrboro's conference presently includes Durham schools that could be heading into a conference with Roanoke Rapids. That conference lacks the warped, gerrymandered complexity of North Carolina's 12th congressional district, but it's not dissimilar. Durham School of the Arts could be looking at a two-hour, 90-mile trip, one way, for regular away matches.

Ross notes the NCHSAA process is just beginning.

"This is the beginning of the process and won't be approved until next May," NCHSAA Associate Commissioner Rick Strunk stated, "So schools will have plenty of opportunity to provide feedback and alternative solutions, including at a series of meetings in January. The Realignment Committee will have a lot to take in."