[KenWittlief]

Matt has picked up on a couple of issues, but I think there are answers

Travel. If every HS has a team, then there can be regionals in every city, which means nobody will need to travel to attend at least one regional.

If only one or two teams from each local event go on to the next level of competition, then part of the fee for the local event could be used to send those teams - you would actually be winning a trip to the next competition, the funds coming from all the teams who played at the local event.

Regarding mentors, FIRST would be much easier if more teams were willing to take a minimal approach. Im an electrical engineer. Everytime I try to fabricate something out of metal it ends up looking like someone stomped on a beer can, but I would be perfectly willing to mentor a team with no mechanical engineers, because I know we could build a robot with all the 'given' systems in the KOP (the kit drivetrain, transmissions, pneumatics....). All the magic in our robot would be the electronics, the sensors, the SW, auton programming, feedback on the control system.

I think its safe to say that most engineers in the US have little or no mechanical design work involvement at their day-jobs. Why cant we be (the only) mentors for teams, knowing the mechanical aspects of our robots will be off-the-shelf?

The students on the team would learn all about programming, electronics, sensors, feedback, control theory, problem solving, the engineering design cycle.... They just wouldnt get much exposure to mechanical engineering.

This approach would open the doors to a flood of companies to be primary sponsors, esp if there was recognition for off-the-shelf robot designs at the competitions.