[ebarker]

Generally speaking there is desirable and undesirable behavior in many activities.

I don't know how you would measure something like this but the better measurement is to assess an activity with 'bell-shaped glasses'.

If you had a plot with pure science on one side and pure sport on the other can you plot something against something to make a bell curve?

Does the aggregate group activity land on target ? And if so how well ? How broad is the distribution from the mean. Is the mean of this curve drifting off target to a pure sport or pure science fair? And so on.

The Chairman's Award description uses the phrase 'central focus'. It didn't say only focus. I think this description is a a useful illustration of how to run the overall program.

Undoubtedly there are teams that are going to run off the slippery tail of the bell curve but I'm not going to fret over that. I'm going to worry about the aggregate numbers as it relates to the central focus.

I don't have any problem with the ESPN style of reporting as long the central focus of the program is maintained. The complaints you voiced are not so different than that voiced about NCAA sports. Most people don't realize it but there are some 400,000 NCAA student-athletes in the US. Most behave and don't do stupid stuff. And most get their education. They maintained their priorities. It is just hard to be aware of that because it doesn't make headlines.

If FIRST has any significant success then we can expect to have issues on fringe just like our sports brethren. It is part of the terrain. We just have to make sure it stays on the fringe.