[meaubry]

Future CMP idea –

As the # of teams continue to grow, it will soon be impossible to accommodate the growth at the Championship event.

Here is an idea to consider.
Create 4 smaller regional championship events that would be held on the final week of the regular season, that would establish the teams that would meet at the Championship event, 2 weeks later.

The criteria for attending the regional events would be similar to what is used now as criteria for the Championship, only that could be expanded a little as well. The 4 Regional Championship events could be like a super regional event (180 teams, if the game is a 6 team game). That is 720 total teams attending all of the Regional Championship events.
I am using the word regional very loosely, and do not imply that regional is geographic dependent. In fact, as teams qualify during the earlier weeks events, they would get a chance to select which Regional Championship event they would like to attend from a choice of the 2 nearest locations to their home state. Details obviously would need to be worked out, but you get the idea.

Teams that auto qualify as before, do so, to a Regional Championship event. The Regional Championships would be similar to the format used today at the current Championship event, with slight changes.
2 divisions of 90 teams, with the top 2 alliances from each division meeting to determine the Regional Champion. (Kinda like what happens on Einstein except with 2 divisions instaed of 4) Runner Up of Division 1 plays Winner of Division 2, and Winner of Division 1 plays Runner up of Division 2. Winners meet to determine Regional Champion.

The Championship event criteria would be based on certain # of qualifying alliances from each of the 4 Regional Championships. Each Regional sends the 4 teams that played at the end for the Championship. That means 16 alliances (total of 4 alliances from each Regional Event) would go, that is 96 teams.

Yes, those alliances at a Regional Championship would stay together and compete at the Championship Event. This eliminates the need for seeding and selection, and the Championship Event could be completed in fewer days and would fit within the larger FTC/FRC/FLL balanced format. It could more easily be televised and or filmed, edited, and produced for a TV special event.

Yes, logistics and planning would be needed - but it isn't something that isn't done every year during March madness, or during the Bowl season for college football. And, I'm certain there are alot of things that would need contingency plans for (such as what if a team in one of the 4 winning alliances chooses to or cannot attend the Championship). I haven't gotten all of those bugs figured out.

Just thought this might be something to consider one day.

As the growth continues, it would be easier to make this model scalable enough to sustain the basic format - for a while.