[Jeff Waegelin]

You know what would be an interesting statistic? The number of teams still in FIRST that were rookies each year, divided by the total number of rookie teams that season. I've had some interesting discussions with Karthik, among others, about how the economy and levels of funding affected the retention rates of rookie teams in a given year (particularly 2002). In the same discussions, we also talked about how such factors could affect team performance; the rationale being that teams started in a year where funding was tight, they would possibly not get as strong of a start, and were less likely to return the following year. I'd also be interested to see if retention rates decrease over time (the "lifespan" of a team).

So, anyways... if anyone knows where to find such data, it might prove to be an interesting comparison...