[Dave Campbell]

What makes a veteran team? Participating in one year then returning the next should qualify that statement. Or maybe being one of the founding teams qualifies at team as a veteran.
Who gives a team this seniority? Our team for example is #1038. Our student population changes every two to three years. Are we less experienced than Team #45? We have mentors who are very active on our team that have been building FIRST robots since 1994, as a matter of fact, several of these robots have been very successful in the FIRST contests - (Sunny D, 1994 National Champs, 1996 National Semi + Chairmans Award, and the list for our former team - #144, goes on until we switched schools in 1998)
The students on some teams change every year...The mentors change occasionally, too. So, is there really an advantage to participation from year to year? It totally depends on the composition of individual teams and therefore cannot be controlled in an algorithm for match scheduling that is intended to have "veteran" teams play matches with other experienced teams, and "rookies" play more rookies. We sometimes have great years, followed by some "re-building" years. Sometimes we figure the game out, other times we totally miss it. That is part of life, part of FIRST. Your team number does not imply any "powerhouse" status. That is earned by consistant performance and should not be accounted for in any match scheduling.
I agree with the title of this thread. With returning mentors and students there are always lessons learned and re-applied to following years, but with a student-centric team, the personnel changes can be drastic from year to year and are not reflected accurately by a team number.