Okay, it's too late and I haven't put a lot of thought in that one yet. I'll try to come back with something better tomorrow, but for know that's it...
Say a team is elligible for the Championship in a determined year (not considering "luck", ie odd numbered team in a odd number year

), but, for some reason - okay, we all know, it's money

- they can't go to Nationals (yeah, we call it that way). This team should have a spot guaranteed next year - c'mon, they earned it -, maybe with the points system being cumulative in some kind of way, or something else.
I don't think there would be enough teams in that situation as to cause big trouble in the following year, so this is the kind of thing that wouldn't be to hard to apply and would make some teams
really happy.
PS: Even though we would be benefited next year if that rule did apply, we probably wouldn't be going to Nationals anyway. With the huge gap between last week of Regionals and the National, it is much wiser to go to two back to back Regionals and pay only one ticket (our biggest cost).