By BRIAN CUNNIFF

Staff Writer

After months of debating proposals and counter-proposals, the Cape-Atlantic League has finally decided on a football alignment for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the league announced earlier this week.

Gone is the three-conference format the league has used over the past two seasons. It will be replaced by the more traditional two-conference format, with nine teams in each.

And, rather than align strictly by enrollment, which is how the CAL usually set up its football structure in the past, the league has instead aligned by recent program strength.

The American Conference will now include the larger schools and the usual CAL powers, while the mostly smaller, often-rebuilding programs, as well as the league’s newest member, will make up the National Conference.

The new American Conference is made up of Group IV Absegami, Atlantic City, Egg Harbor Township, Mainland and Millville; Group III Hammonton and Oakcrest; and traditional non-public CAL powers Holy Spirit and St. Joseph.

Meanwhile, the National Conference will include Group IV Vineland; Group III Ocean City; Group II Buena, Bridgeton, Lower Cape May, Middle Township and Pleasantville; Group I Cedar Creek, which officially joins the league for the first time; and non-public St. Augustine Prep.

The current alignment will satisfy each team’s nine-game schedule. In addition to each team’s eight conference games, each team will cross over to play one game against an opponent from the opposite conference.

Traditional Thanksgiving rivalry games have also been preserved under the new alignment.