[jcarr]

You may want to consider more than 5 per team. There are a lot of roles on the team, including CAD, software, drivers, build team. I would recommend 6 or 7.

Budget - we suggest that you need about 5K/year to be competitive, not counting travel expenses, especially in your first year. Just buying and building the game elements may cost $500, plus you need a field, although you can build one out of plywood and PVC to save money. We have found that the standard kit and resource kit always have extra peices you don't need and not enough of the ones you will need. We usually order extra parts directly. You can build a non-competitive team for 2500 or less, but if the first time they run on a full competition field is at the championship, they will not do as well as they could. Subsequent years are much cheaper because you have the basic field, NXT, and parts, but that first year can hurt. Starting 2-3 teams simultaneously lets you spread the cost of the field and components. I run 3 FTC teams and we share all the extra components, which reduces waste parts.

Many states are requiring official qualifiers, although it may be different where you are (we are east coast and have a large number of teams per state). To get into a qualifier, or state championship (if there are no qualidiers), a lot of states use a preference list such that in-state teams get priority, then teams that have participated in in-state scrimmages/events, then out-of-state teams. It is usually designed so that every team gets into at least one event.

Good luck!