[Orion.DeYoe]

Okay so the first thing I would like to say is that the rankings DO NOT reflect how good teams are. At both of our regionals this year we ranked below the top 8 but were picked by #2. We also won one of our regionals undefeated in eliminations.
At buckeye #1 picked #21 and #2 picked #20 (us). Tell me that these rankings aren't messed up.

The alliance selection process is fine.
The rankings most certainly are not.

I have been team representative for the past two years. I was on the receiving end of this strategy in 2012 and I can tell you it felt terrible.
We were ranked 4th. #1 picked #2 as usual. #3 was a rookie team who got there as a result of coopertition points and good matches. The next best robot after us was ranked #8. We wanted to pick them, if we had been able to pair up we probably could have won the regional. #3 asked us if we would be interested in pairing up right before selections and we told them that we wanted to start our own alliance. They also asked #8 and they said that they would say no. They asked #8 during selections anyways and #8 declined.
This broke up our alliance with #8, and with the remaining teams there was no combination of robots that would be able to defeat alliance 1.

As I said, the selection process is fine, but the ranking system is WAY too dependent on schedule. This needs to be changed.