I definitely agree that the current penalty system is messed up. I think the best way to fix it is to institute some form of score-based penalties, to deter teams from breaking rules, and give a meaningful penalty. I'm not sure how that would work, without knowing next year's game, but some form of point deductions for minor penalties would be my solution.
My proposal:
- Each penalty would have a different point value, either 5, 10, or 15 points based on the severity of the violation.
- At the end of the match, each team's penalty points are subtracted from the alliance's match score
- 20 penalty points by one team results in a disqualification for the team
- 30 penalty points by an alliance results in the disqualification of that alliance.
- Any team who has racked up 100 total penalty points would face further sanctions, such as a reduction in seeding, or ineligibility for the alliance draft, depending on how many penalties and DQs they incurred.
While my system obviously needs work and refinement, I think a score-based system would be an effective deterrent, as well as less confusing and more meaningful. As it stands, the rules either give out meaningless flags, or a DQ. We need something in between to even things out, and make the rules mean something without always ending in a disqualification. If anyone has any comments on my point system, I'm prepared for quite a few discussions...