[Greg Needel]

The only solution to this that I can think of is to offer waitlist teams based on geography and performance in the season, instead of first cone first serve or time since last championship.

There would need to be some sort of ranking system for performance that normalizes the performance within a region ( maybe a modified version of the district point system). There would definitely be some issues as the algorithm would need to take into account quite a few different things. For instince there would always be a debate about which regions get priority as it would be nearly impossible to perfectly balance the regions. It would also be quite a bit of work for FIRST to inform teams and make these decisions, which for the most part only affect a few teams.

Another method of implementation might be to modify the wildcard system so that it continues to pass down until it's used. This would be problematic when you get to the semi finalists as then you would have to bring scores and rank( pre elims) into the picture and this get equally as muddy. For example should the 2nd round pick on the #3 alliance who was a semifinalist advance before the #5 alliance captain that got put out in the quarter finals? Wildcard right now is a good thing that does help cover some inequalities at the region but it also does influence alliance selection as teams who thin they can't win will consider which situation best earns them a wildcard spot, I am not sure what an expanded version of this system would do.

Though question that would take some serious thought to figure out a reasonable solution, if in fact it is worth solving at all because of the small number of teams this effects each year.