[tim-tim]

No one says that the board will be the in terms of layout and components. Rather if you know the old robot's control board mounting configuration, you can design a new board that incorporates both the old mounting configuration and the new mounting configuration. It may even be possible to use the same mounting holes for both robots. I don't think this violates the rule, or the intent of the rule.

Now if you were taking last year's (old) board and installing it in the current season's (new) robot, this would be an issue. Although, I see nothing wrong with you using an old board on the robot for testing purposes until you can get a finalized design for the new board.