Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Zondag
Wow, I am beginning to feel like a member of the fabled "vast right-wing conspiracy" 
I can tell you for a fact, this proposal does little to help your so called "elite". These teams have money, have build shops and have the means to ALWAYS produce a great robot in 6 weeks. What does this do for them?....very little. Now, on the flip side, half the teams in the state have barely enough resources to play at one event in 2008. In 2009, every team will now get to play twice, and will have 3 times as much field time as in the past for a lower price. This has almost no benefit for the rich teams, they already have the cash to play as many times as they want, but this will make a world of difference for many who can not currently afford to expand their involvement.
Now look at how this will actually hurt the elite. It is a well documented fact that the more a team plays, the better they get. If you don't believe this, look at the OPR value growth on any team across multiple events. The trend is almost universally in the positive direction. This is why many senior teams try to play as many times as possible. In 2008 there were only 5 teams from Michigan that played at 3 regionals. In 2009, there will effectively be over 60 teams who can make this claim. There goes a big competitive advantage previously only available to teams with a lot of money. Favoring the elite? I think not! |
Don't worry Jim, no one with even a small amount of intelligence would believe you would orchestrate such a massive overhaul just for personal gain.... And this is coming from someone who doesn't exactly agree with this pilot program (well, not the program, but it's lack of publicly stated measures of success).