[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

Putting aside the dubious allegations concerning proportional representation in Minnesota... I strongly disagree with the sentiment that we need to lock out teams from outside the state, just because Michigan, MAR, etc. are getting that same "advantage." For one, these teams are a lot of fun to have around. Second, it's something Minnesota really really needs while its team are where they are right now. A lot of MN teams still have difficulty getting something together that can reliably connect to the field and the driver station. More have trouble performing the basic tasks of each years game. The chance for us in MN to compete with and learn from strong, successful, experienced teams from out of state is invaluable. I can't imagine MN events without the likes of 27, 359, 525, 967, 171, 2826, 1714, 3928, 1986, etc. etc. etc. etc.

And besides, where do you want them to go?

Frankly, I don't want to see those teams go, either... I don't know what we'd do without the volunteers some of them bring to our events! But it's still a problem when you have different qualification requirements for different groups of teams. It creates a situation where one group or another is at a disadvantage. The solution isn't just "more districts!" - that puts more and more of a squeeze on the areas that aren't districts. We have to develop a solution that fixes the inequity between the regional and district models. As it stands today, districts get proportional representation, but regionals only get 6 teams per regional. As a result, there's a wait list... which means if you look at the regionals as one huge district (ignoring the issue of representation for local areas), they don't get the same proportional representation as the districts do. They get less. You might have 30% of teams in districts and 30% of teams at champs earning their way from districts... but the other 70% who are in regionals only have a 60% representation at champs (as an example). The extra 10%, as things stand right now, is based on who can click a mouse to register the quickest. We should be able to do better than that.