Rumor is about to give way to fact.

The Catholic League, according to reliable sources, soon will hold a news conference to announce its intention to join the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

One source said the news conference will be "sometime this month."

Another added, "It could be pretty soon. It's just a matter of a lot of people coordinating their schedules. It's a done deal. This is imminent."

Steve Pawlowski, who oversees high school education for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said no decision about joining the PIAA has been reached.

"I am able to tell you it's still under consideration," he added. "It has been an ongoing process."

Bishop Joseph McFadden, in his layman years the basketball coach at West Catholic and, as a priest, later an administrator at Cardinal O'Hara, long has been in favor of placing the CL in the PIAA.

Coaches, athletic directors and principals/presidents have expressed mixed opinions and, off the record anyway, those against the move have been passionate.

But to a man, most on both sides have said, "What the Bishop wants, the Bishop gets. So it's only a matter of time."

Pawlowski confirmed that athletic directors and principals/presidents will do no voting on this issue.

"Any decision will come from our office," he said, referring to the Office of Catholic Education. "This is in the hands of two people, the Bishop and the Cardinal [Justin Rigali]."

Still to be determined is whether the CL schools could be split between District 12 (city limits) and District 1 (surrounding four counties).

"It's my sense," a source said, "that they'd like to keep the league together and have all of the teams in one district."

It's unlikely, a source said, that the league would attempt to join District 12. That leaves District 1. It's doubtful the PIAA would ever go for a setup giving the CL its own district; not nearly enough schools.

District 12 for now exclusively consists of Public League schools. The Pub joined the PIAA as a paperwork-only member for the 2003-04 school year, and then began competing full blast in '04-'05. For now, non-Public schools are banned from District 12 until July 2008. It's possible the ban could be lifted with the approval of PL brass.

As Pawlowski acknowledged, the CL faces its own issues with possible mergers and/or closures in the coming years.

The Inter-Ac League has also had loose PIAA discussions. However, the league would have to scrap a fundamental part of its being - the practice of allowing star athletes to repeat a year.