When the Austin and Albert Lea football teams face off in Albert Lea’s Hammer Field at 7 p.m. Friday, it could be the last meeting between the two in a long time.

Next season, district scheduling sets in, and Albert Lea will be the only Big Nine team that isn’t in Austin’s district.

Starting in fall of 2015, the state’s schools will be divided into 18 districts, which were announced in June. Football teams will no longer play a conference schedule. They will instead play a district schedule during the regular season, and they’ll face the same district teams in the postseason.

Albert Lea is in the 28-team South Central District. Austin is not. The Packers are in the 12-team Big Southeast District. The Big Southeast includes every Big Nine Conference team except for Albert Lea, which was replaced by New Prague.

Last season, Austin snapped a seven-game losing skid to the Tigers.

Austin head coach Brett Vesel is new to the Austin-AL rivalry as this is his third year with the Packers. But he’s heard enough from the community and his players to know that this is a big game.

“I haven’t experienced the rivalry like some people have in this town,” Vesel said. “I’ve heard about it and talked to some of the coaches about it. This is the game. It’s an important game no matter which way you spin it.”

Albert Lea or Austin could still drop a district game to play each other in the coming years, but that may not happen, and the Packer-Tiger rivalry come to an end on the football field. In two years, the districts will be re-aligned and Albert Lea could be moved to the Big Southeast District, but there’s no guarantee that will happen.