The season has ended for all but the eight teams that will participate in the WPIAL championship games Friday at Heinz Field.

That means most of the coaches and fans in Western Pennsylvania are wondering about realignment and next year's schedule.

Well, here is the timeline the WPIAL has set up.

By now, just about anyone who cares has checked the enrollment figures of WPIAL schools for the 2010 and '11 seasons. But the WPIAL will not officially announce its revamped conferences until after Jan. 1.

"We have a football steering committee meeting scheduled for Jan. 5 and at that time we'll sit down and arrive at the section [conference] alignments for the next two years," WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said. "That will go to the board of control meeting on Jan. 19 for a vote."

O'Malley hopes to have all of the WPIAL schedules for the fall sports for next year ready to go by the beginning of February.

Schools have until Tuesday to inform the PIAA as to whether they want to play up in classification. For example, Aliquippa and Jeannette are Class A for football under the PIAA enrollment guidelines, but both played in Class AA the past two school years.

It also should be pointed out that Altoona and Hollidaysburg, which have competed in PIAA District 6 in the past, will be football-only members of the WPIAL for at least the next two seasons.

Altoona will compete in Class AAAA and will probably be added to the Foothills Conference that included Hempfield Area, Penn-Trafford, Norwin and Greater Latrobe this season.

Hollidaysburg will compete in Class AAA and probably be placed in a conference that will include Indiana, Derry Area and Greensburg Salem.

Unlike Erie McDowell, which played a WPIAL schedule in recent years but was not eligible to compete for a league title, Altoona and Hollidaysburg will be eligible to play for WPIAL football championships.

McDowell, which played against teams in the Class AAAA Foothills Conference this season, probably won't be involved in WPIAL scheduling. It does not appear that District 10 officials will allow McDowell to join the WPIAL as an associate member for football.

"McDowell might appeal that to the state [PIAA] but I don't see the state going against District 10," O'Malley said. "The thing is that McDowell has been sharpening its pencil playing against our [WPIAL] teams and then competing against us when it comes to the state [PIAA] playoffs and we don't think that's right.

"So, we want McDowell to either join us for football and play with our teams for our title or look elsewhere for a schedule."

Nobody will spend more time at Heinz Field Friday than Don Rebel, operations manager for the MSA (Management Science Associates) Sports Network.

The MSA Sports Network is the official radio voice of the WPIAL and Rebel and his band of merry men will be at the stadium before the first player walks out onto the field and long after the last bus pulls out of the parking lot.

One of the affiliates for the network will be on the air from 10 a.m., that's 30 minutes before the first kickoff, until 11:30 p.m. All of the games will be on WJAS-AM (1320) and on the Internet at www.MSAsportsnetwork.com.

Although Rebel will not broadcast any of the games -- "We leave that up to the guys who have been doing that all year and the folks from the different network stations who will do their own teams," he said -- he will honcho the pre- and postgame shows between the four championship contests.

"We'll probably get down there [Heinz Field] a little before 9 a.m. and we'll get out after midnight," Rebel said. "It's a long day, but a good day."

Those fans who want an in-depth preview of the WPIAL's four championship games can get it from 6:30-8 p.m. today at www.MSAsportsnetwork.com as Rebel hosts This Week in the WPIAL.

Along with many of the MSA broadcasters who have covered games throughout Western Pennsylvania the past two-and-a-half months, Rebel along with Sam Hall and Bob Orkwis will break down the four finals.

Speaking of the MSA Sports Network, it has had an interesting partnership with WPXI-TV sports director John Fedko and the Fedko Fone Zone on Pittsburgh Cable News Channel.

All of Pittsburgh's three major television stations air scores and highlights of high school football games in the fall, but Fedko takes it one step further, thanks to MSA.

On his Fone Zone on PCNC, which is a call-in show for viewers the rest of the season, Fedko talks to MSA broadcasters who were at some of the area's more important games and gets a live rundown of what transpired in those contests.

"This is our third year with the Fone Zone and it has worked out well," Rebel said.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.