Quote:
Originally Posted by MARS_James
I am hoping one day preferably sooner rather then later FIRST will allow individual teams to choose what their team will be doing, what I mean is you have a list of every District with a button and then a Regional System button. Let teams who geographically are closer to a district, even if it isn't their "home" district, choose to be in a district while teams in a district who geographically better suited to go to a regional choose to opt out of a districts. It has become abundantly clear that state borders do not make the best markers for district borders.
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While something like this would certainly help many "borderline" teams as districts grow, it would also be a nightmare to manage. As one example, when Minnesota finally goes to districts, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Western Wisconsin and North Dakota teams that currently come to our regionals... Do they get included in the district for their ease of travel? Do they get excluded so the Minnesota State High School League can sponsor a state tournament in week 7 instead of opting out of a broader district tournament (hypothetical, I have no idea how things will work with the MSHSL when Minnesota goes to districts)?
Instead of basic "open enrollment", I could see a redistricting process every so often (maybe 5 years?) where the district borders are redrawn. It would give teams a chance to provide input as to where the borders should be, give FIRST a chance to merge or split districts as needed (for example, Michigan could split in half since it's so huge, while Indiana could merge with a neighboring state to make a larger district), and let us appropriately adapt to any funding/political changes that occur.
While state borders may not make sense in some situations, in others they might. It's not
only about travel distance for teams.