[Advice]

Thanks for the replies so far, but without getting into specifics how do we get the mentors to open up to more ideas when they won't entertain any?

If the students end up successfully prototyping a new to us drive train or other design feature this off-season, and the mentors dismiss it out of hand again next year, it will crush the students. Especially, since the mentors are not able to work on it in the off-season.

This thread isn't asking how successful your team is or has been, it is asking for help getting mentors to try new things.