[OneAngryDaisy]

I clearly remember 25's awesome tether design. It was impossible to entangle that sucker, and believe me, we tried. The only issue would be that it did not fold up when retracted, but there was no point in retracting back in 2002.

I could visualize an telescoping mechanism, although it would be quite large. This year our team has an three stage telescope that extends to 12 feet, if you added another two stages or so that would easily knock the ball out. And our mechanism is only 4.2 pounds with the motor included, so this would not be a large weight issue. Additionaly, it could double as a bar grabber, how cool would that be, a 25 foot telescoping pole- you could practically grab from anywhere..

yea, it might be unrealistic, but you could pull it off with the right materials and design.