DOVER — Delaware has never been known as a place where major changes happen quickly or often.

Probably the last big changes in the state’s high school football structure came when an official state tournament was created in 1971 and then split into two divisions four years later.

So it was a fairly momentous decision made by the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association board of directors on Thursday to divide the state into three classifications for football beginning in the fall.

And rather than having the state’s 46 football programs split into two divisions based solely on enrollment, schools will now be organized based on recent success along with school size.

The decision essentially does away with conference affiliations in the sport, not to mention any remaining lines between public and private schools.

There will now be an 11-team 3A classification for the top schools, a 21-team Class 2A and a 14-team Class 1A. Each class will be broken up into two districts in Class 3A and 1A, and three districts in 2A.

Teams will face each of the other schools within their district during the regular season, with three state champions determined at the end of the fall.

Here is the breakdown of the three classes:

Division 3A. District I: Appoquinimink, Hodgson, Middletown, Salesianum, St. Georges, William Penn. District II: Caesar Rodney, Cape Henlopen, Dover, Smyrna, Sussex Central.

Division 2A. District I: Concord, Conrad, Delcastle, Delaware Military, McKean, Newark, St. Mark’s. District II: A.I. DuPont, Archmere, Brandywine, Howard, Mt. Pleasant, Tower Hill, Wilmington Friends. District III: Caravel, Delmar, Lake Forest, Milford, Red Lion Christian, Sussex Tech, Woodbridge.

Division 1A. District I: Christiana, Wilmington Charter, Dickinson, Glasgow, St. Andrews, St. Elizabeth, Tatnall. District II: Early College at DSU, First State Military, Indian River, Laurel, Odessa, Polytech, Seaford.

Henlopen Conference teams are spread out among the three divisions, with most of the downstate rivalries remaining intact. For instance, Dover and Caesar Rodney are both in 3A, Milford and Lake Forest are in 2A and Seaford and Laurel in 1A.

Smyrna High coach Mike Judy, while he said he likes the general idea, still has a number of questions.

“If the big picture is to create less competition gaps, there’s a lot more to be done,” he said. “They’re going to have to come up with a lot of answers.

“I’m all about giving all 46 football teams in the state a good chance to either challenge themselves — to move up or down the ladder a little bit — or to take a step back and rebuild as indicated by your success. We’re such a small state, there should be no dynasties ever below the Class 3A.”

“If you’re looking for a goal, parity is a great goal,” said Polytech High coach Bob Gilmore. “Give all kids an opportunity to compete. At the end of the day, we’re talking about student-athletes.

“Yes, we’re all trying to win. But, at the same time, we want life-learning experiences for kids. And I think you’re going to find a greater number of life-learning opportunities in more competitive games.”

The alignment has been worked on by a committee of the state’s athletic directors for nine months. But the idea itself has been discussed in different forms for years.

Administrators have noted the number of mismatches between schools within the same conferences and the shrinking number of players participating in the sport in recent years.

Polytech High had already decided to leave the Henlopen Conference in football and play as an independent for the next two seasons.

On Thursday, the DIAA voted in the alignment suggested by the state’s superintendents. Among other things, the superintendents wanted Division II champion Howard in Class 2A, instead of 3A, and Polytech in 1A as opposed to the middle division.

“When you look at sports in many programs, in many schools, enrollment in sports is down,” said Gilmore. “Absolutely, one-sided losses are a big part of that. Who wants to be on the end of what they think is going to be a one-sided game every time they go out?”

But Thursday’s decision is hardly the end of the debate.

Next, schedules for each team will have to be set by a scheduling committee. With only five teams in Class 3A, District II, those schools will have to fill six dates on their regular-season schedule.

Schools are allowed to play teams in other districts but will be discouraged from playing up or down a difference of two classes.

With that issue in mind, there may need to be changes made to the DIAA state tournament point system. As it stands now, the top schools aren’t awarded as many points for playing a lower-classified team.

It also needs to be determined how schools’ classifications will be changed in the future. There’s a presumption that there will need to be some movement based on the success, or lack of it, by various programs.

Scheduling is usually done in two-year cycles.

At the end of the day, the people making the decisions felt like the DIAA finally needed to commit to the realignment, or not, because schedules need to be established for the next two seasons soon.

Clearly, everyone involved agrees there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Smyrna High athletic director Bill Schultz was one of the ADs on the realignment committee. During Thursday’s DIAA board meeting he quoted a comment someone made at a previous meeting.

“Don’t let perfection get in the way of the good,” said Schultz.