[TheFish]

I think geography is definitely not the way FIRST should organize divisions; teams too often compete in Regionals close to home and it is much more exciting to be paired up with new teams at the Championships.

I think overall this is a great idea.

One of the biggest things to consider is Division-Pride. Under the current system, teams who don't make the Championships have no interest as to which Division wins Einstein, because they aren't tied to any specific one. If we had a system where each team, over time could get assigned a division then there would develop a much bigger sense of community and pride within that Division.

A big example are conferences within collegiate sports. Even though two schools might be big rivals, they still want their rivals to win so that their conference will get more credibility and they can take pride in something bigger than just their school.

My suggestion: during the first 4 times a team goes to the Championships, FIRST tries as hard as possible to make sure that they are put in all four divisions. After these four times you would be placed in the division where you performed your best (tie breakers being: winner/finals/semis, then to win-loss record, then seed).

Clearly there are risks to a system like this, of having one Division become stronger over time than the others... but as we all know, anything can happen in FIRST and teams get better/worse from year to year, so you never know how things are going to develop.

I'm curious to see what other ideas this thread comes up with.

-TheFish