The inhabitants of Red Hall will decide next month whether to stretch the competition to 14 teams next season and, if they do plump for expansion, which of the 19 applicants best satisfy the selection criteria.
Some people, me included, would argue that it is wrong in principle.
Others, largely the people running the 12 existing top flight teams, have more practical objections.
One of which is pretty crucial: where are the players going to come from?
At the moment, it is fair to say that any of the National League clubs with an even slightly serious chance to clinching promotion - and I use that word in its loosest sense - would need to strengthen considerably in order to be even slightly competitive.
Salford, Widnes, Celtic Crusaders and Halifax would all need a recruitment drive running well into double figures.
One look at this year's whipping boys Castleford, who were arguably a better National League side in 2007 than any of the aforementioned quartet, demonstrates that much.
In the final analysis, you would have two teams looking for upwards of 30 players between them.
And, unless the RFL have dabbled in human cloning, they simply are not there.
Look at Halifax. It took them the best part of six months to find a scrum half to replace the errant Aaron Heremaia.
Or Widnes, who apparently have huge piles of backer Steve O'Connor's money they are just desperate to burn, but are struggling to find anyone of significance to spend it on.
There are Super League-standard players in the National League at the moment, but there are not that many of them, perhaps a dozen or so.
And taking the traditional way out - drafting in a bunch of Australians/Islanders/insert-random-nationality-here with British parents/grandparents/acquaintances/a-relative-who-once-stopped-off-in-London-on-their-hols - has to be a non-starter.
That is not a good sign if the game wants to avoid a competition that is bigger but not actually better.
Whether or not the doubts surrounding these market forces will be enough to stop the franchising process in its tracks remains to be seen.
But it is certainly a problem that needs some careful consideration.

TRIUMPH or disaster. Wigan's recruitment of Tim Smith is likely to be judged at one extreme or the other.
At his best, the Australian half back, formerly of Parramatta, is brilliant. At his worst, he is an accident waiting to happen.
Smith's battle with bi-polar disorder, the same form of depression that afflicted Andrew Johns, is ongoing, and in that he deserves the support of the sport and everyone in it.
But it is his tendency to become embroiled in the alcohol-related bother that plagued his time with the Eels that should be worrying the Warriors.
I saw two interesting quotes this week.
One was from Wigan chairman Ian Lenagan, who said something along the lines of: "Tim now feels ready to relaunch his rugby league career away from the Sydney media pressure."
Translation: "Tim is looking forward to being able to get up to mischief without it becoming public knowledge." And a belter from the man himself: "I don't have a problem with alcohol."
That, I would suggest, is already a problem for Wigan.