[JesseK]

You, or your mentors, need to show your Administration how your FRC team will outlast the Administration's budget cuts. From their perspective, if a program is unsustainable cost-wise it doesn't matter how many students it attracts. Additionally, if you can't attract as much as another sport, why should they fund you? Seeking corporate sponsorship is how we do it.

I'm simply pointing out their perspective, and will leave it up to you to show them a new paradigm (academics has much greater ROI than sports, etc).

As for mentors -- generally speaking, so long as the students get hands-on experience then don't worry about what other teams think about your team's mentoring process. If you focus on your team, then your students will benefit from it. If you pay attention to every nut job on ChiefDelphi, you'll never reach a decision.