The Mississippi Valley Conference will live to celebrate its 81st birthday as a football league next year.

The MVC was saved as a football league Thursday when adminstrators from all Class 4A football schools met with IHSAA officials at a special meeting in Boone.

The move toward Class 4A district football was stopped, at least in the eastern half of the state that includes the Mississippi Valley Conference and the Mississippi Athletic Conference.

"The east schools are not going to see any change," Rick Wulkow, the executive director of the IHSAA, told the Metro Sports Report in a telephone interview. "The Mississippi Valley Conference will be doing their own scheduling."

The MVC has already approved its football schedules for 2012 and 2013, with a full nine-game schedule of conference games for its 14 league members.

There could be a geographic divide next year, with 4A schools in the west assigned to districts and 4A schools in the east competing in their traditional conferences.

"Theoretically? That's a possibility," Wulkow said.

The western schools in the CIML and Missouri River Conference have encountered scheduling problems, whereas the eastern schools in the MVC and MAC have not encountered significant issues. The IHSAA will help the western schools with their schedules, including the possibility of district competition, but the eastern schools will not be affected.

Xavier High School voted in favor of district football, which would have opened the door for the Saints to leave Class 4A football and compete in Class 3A, based on enrollment. It was a non-binding vote, in response to an IHSAA survey.

Mike Winker, the athletic director at Xavier, told the Metro Sports Report Thursday that the Saints will stay in the Mississippi Valley Conference and continue to play 4A football.

"That is correct," he said. "We support the decision that was made."

Scott Kibby, the athletic director at Cedar Rapids Jefferson, staunchly defended the Mississippi Valley Conference and sought ways to preserve the MVC as a football league.

"I feel real good about the way the meeting went," Kibby said. "It's what I was hoping would come out of it."

The IHSAA surveyed all 47 Class 4A football schools in September, asking for an informal vote on district football. The non-binding result, announced last month, was 25-22 in favor of district football, which led to Thursday's meeting to discuss the issues.

Mississippi Valley Conference schools voted 10-4 against district football, with Xavier, Dubuque Wahlert, Waterloo West and Waterloo East voting in favor, according to sources.

Wulkow was reluctant to offer further details about Thursday's meeting, deferring comment until the IHSAA Board of Control votes on the issue Nov. 19. He said it was a productive meeting that will help all 47 schools in Class 4A play a nine-game schedule in 2012.

Thursday's meeting was closed to the media.

"Until the board puts their stamp on what was resolved, I can't go any further than that," he said. "It's been resolved, and the east is going to continue with their scheduling and the west is going to take care of their 23 schools.

"To get more specific than that, I can't tell you until the board approves what was presented today," he said. "Everybody is going to have a full schedule. Football is moving on."

Under the district proposal, the MVC schools would have been assigned to districts to determine playoff teams. Linn-Mar, Kennedy and Jefferson were assigned to one proposed district, while Washington and Prairie were assigned to another. Now that won't happen.

Wulkow disagreed with a suggestion that the IHSAA was "backing away" from Class 4A district football.

"All we did was provide a platform for people to be heard," he said. "We're not backing away from anything. We didn't have anything on the table. We provided the platform for them to share their concerns and issues."