Okay, if I were King of FIRST and I had decided that we were going to have a public draft of the teams in the divisions, here is how I would do it.
Whole idea: Establish a tiered scholarship structure that awards points for prediction regional outcomes. Teams that are the best at predicting the outcomes win college scholarships for their team members. The better the team is at predicting the outcomes, the more scholarship dollars that team earns for its team members.
The 4 best teams at predictions during the regionals become the drafters for the CMP (to avoid conflicts of interest, if your team is competing in the CMP your team is automatically your first draft choice).
Additional scholarships are available based on the "goodness" of your division. Goodness can be something as simple as winning on Einstein, but I think that there should be some other measures included to more broadly reflect the goals that we'd like in a division*
Each team playing the prediction game predicts the outcomes of each qualifying match of a regional n minutes prior to the start of each match. Same for each elimination match. A grand prize scholarship is given to the team that does the best at predicting the winners of the matches together with the strength of the division.
It is a crazy scheme. I admit that. But I think it would be great for a number of reasons. First, it would make people become serious about tracking FIRST teams and their performance week to week and game to game. Second, it would provide another "horse race" to follow (which team is leading in the prediction game). Third, it would provide valuable information to teams as to the strength of various teams. Fourth, it could start a sort of punditry class where we are all talking about FIRST because we have an interest in the outcomes of the various games around the country.
Fifth and finally, it would be a hoot. I think that it would really be fun to be a part of the game.
Call me nuts, but at least it is a bold plan...
Joe J.
*I know I am going far afield here but what about this additional crazy idea. What if there was a "second chance" tourney going on backstage (i.e. on the two fields farthest from Einstein) where teams that are eliminated from the divisions get a second chance to play for their own glory but also for that of their division.
Teams that are eliminated from the divisional tourneys are not "done."
After the divisional champs are crowned, the "second chance" tourney takes place on the two fields farthest from Einstein. Here is how it could work:
- The 16 alliances that lost in the QF would play 8 matches among themselves - of course, they would play alliances from other divisions.
- The losers are done.
- The winners are matched up with the 8 losing SF alliances -- again pairings are arranged to avoid divisional re-matches as much as possible.
- They play another 8 matches. The losers are done.
- The 8 remaining alliances and the 4 Finalists from the division give us enough alliances for 6 more matches which produces 6 more winners and 6 more alliances that are done.
- Those 6 alliances now play 3 more matches which produces 3 more also rans and 3 alliances (9 teams) that can call themselves "Second Chance Champions"
It is a total of 25 (=8+8+6+3) matches on 2 stages with 6 minute cycle times that is an hour and 15 minutes. It would be over before the teams even realized it happened. I don't think we allow time outs or subs or even 4 minutes between back to back matches. Play when and where you're called. If you're ready you play if not, you're done. Also, we don't make a big deal about these games. Perhaps we don't even announce the team names and numbers. "Thumbs up red, Thumbs up blue, 3 2 1 go..." As to awards, we hand them the trophy as they exit the field and that is that.
Even so, do not underestimate how great it would be to participate in this second chance tourney. Redemption is a funny thing. It requires so little to heal so much. At a minimum, it lets 9 more teams go home from the CMP having won their last match. This is a non-trivial boost to the overall mood of the event, as it allows more teams to go home winners... ...and it gives you more comparisons between the divisions so that we can decide which drafter deserves the best scholarships.