[petek]

[my 2 cents]
I strongly believe that FRC should remain a high school competition. Moving it up to college would defeat the purpose and eliminate a great opportunity to inspire HS students. It sets a very high standard and requires great committment to compete at a high level, and for those fortunate enough to experience it, offers tremendous rewards.

However, the cost in time and money is more than most people and schools are willing to put out, and IMHO, it cannot continue to expand at the current rate. That isn't necessarily bad - if it plateaued at 1000 teams it would still be a great opportunity for 25,000 or so students each year.

FVC (aka VEX) is a good start at creating similar opportunities for a wider audience. It has many of the same challenges as FRC with a lower cost in money and time committment. Having ref'ed an FVC competition earlier this year, I can say that those students exercised creativity in their robot designs and competed with intensity of the same caliber as seen at any FRC regional.

If FIRST can keep the cost to compete in FVC down, I think it could grow nearly as big as FLL (aka Lego League) - especially if they encouraged middle school entries and keep the total cost to field a team below $1,000 per year.
[/my 2 cents]