FRANKLIN - Even with the biggest hurdle yet to come, Thursday’s 10-4 vote in favor of the statewide football playoff system by the Tournament Management Committee included something seldom seen in an MIAA meeting: a celebration.

It wasn’t a wild, cork-popping affair, but an acknowledgement by all that football players across the state are one step closer to joining their soccer, field hockey, and volleyball classmates in a playoff system that will allow greater participation and produce a true state champion.

At the TMC’s last meeting in March, it asked the Football Committee to provide greater details on the plan. It did, and the TMC liked what it saw.

“It’s been a long haul, and I think it’s a great opportunity,’’ said Kathleen McSweeney, the TMC chair and Plymouth North principal. “I think it’s a step in the right direction.’’

McSweeney, who also chaired the ad hoc committee that produced a proposal that was voted down at the annual meeting in 2010, immediately texted her vice principal Bill Burkhead after the vote. It was Burkhead, as North’s athletic director, who was a key figure in constructing the last proposal. And it may have been that failed try that is helping propel this one along.

“Yes, all the work that we went through really laid the foundation,’’ said McSweeney. “I think it got people thinking differently, that it really is possible to take a look at what’s best for kids and best for football.’’

But as any veteran follower of the MIAA knows, one committee is usually followed by another. Next up is the June 7 meeting of the MIAA’s board of directors.