[thatmorman]

i dont know if this helps your situation too much, but our team motto is student designed, student built, and mentor approved. our mentors are strictly hands off, but for design, they play a big role, but they do not make the decisions for us, they say well that would work better, or that wont be as affective, but as long as a decision would get you by, they do not change the design or idea. you should have a meeting between your team captains and mentors and politely discuss the problem, just make sure they know what first is all about and that this is not all about winning, it is about learning, we are a 4 year team this year, we are very fortunate mentor and student wise to make good decisions and put out good ideas and our mentors do not have to play the biggest role in building the robot, but they still do a ton, but they know that this is our game, not theres. good luck with everything!