The Highlanders First XV competition looks set for some major surgery that may include a rejigged format and a move to crack down on teams importing players.
Otago Boys' High School won the title on Saturday, beating Southland Boys' High School 16-10 in a tight match at Littlebourne.
It will now travel to Christchurch to play Christchurch Boys' High School in the South Island final, the winner to qualify for the national top four in Rotorua the following weekend.
St Kevin's College will host Burnside High School in Oamaru, also on Saturday, to decide the top South Island co-educational school.
It is the fourth year in a row Otago Boys' has won the title, and its dominance is one of the issues which may lead to the format of the competition being changed.
Highlanders First XV committee chairman Don McFarlane said plenty of scenarios and ideas had been thrown around and one would be settled on going into next season.
There was concern about mismatches and the travel factor.
One possible solution was an expanded competition with a top and bottom section, which occurred in the Crusaders competition.
Over the past two years, two different formats - a regional-based pool system and then a seeded system, based on results from the previous years - have been used, but McFarlane said the two formats had not been successful.
Another issue under scrutiny was player eligibility.
The committee did not want to stop pupils who had been to the school for their entire education from coming back for an extra year if they wished.
''But some teams are over-stepping boundaries and we feel they have gone too far.
"That is not what the competition was set out for,'' McFarlane said.
Many players from overseas and other schools - some of whom were over age - had been shipped into teams and received dispensations, but that had led to questions whether the importing of these players was benefiting the game in the South.
The 14-team, two-pool system had not worked successfully this year, with teams from one pool getting through to the top eight ahead of other sides that had won more games.
South Otago High School lost two games in pool play, finished fifth in its pool and did not qualify for the top eight.
Schools in the other pool went through to the top eight despite losing more games.
South Otago lost just two games of 20 this season, including on a pre-season tour of Australia but, under the structure of the season, finished ninth in the Highlanders competition.
Kavanagh College has won the right to take on Dunstan High School in a promotion-relegation match this Saturday, but whether it will have any bearing on next year is still up in the air.
Kavanagh dropped out of the competition at the start of last season due to depleted playing stocks but bounced back this year to win the Metropolitan under-18 schools grade, beating Taieri College 12-6 in the final.
Dunstan is playing in the relegation match despite finishing ahead of four Southland schools.
Relegation games are done on a regional basis.
No team from Southland will be relegated as the only school which could have challenged, Verdon College, has decided against playing the game.
