FRC Blogged - Something New – FIRST Dean’s List Changes

[bardd]

Originally Posted by Karthik

That being said, Canadian teams will just nominate these deserving seniors one year earlier. By no means is this a deal breaker.

True, but you could say the same about American teams being able to submit seniors. They could do it a year earlier, and there's still a limitation.
The older the achievement, the less impressive it appears. A year may not be a long time, but it can still have a big difference on the way those you're trying to impress (colleges in that case) look at your Dean's List Finalist status. I learned that on my flesh (through a different achievement, not Dean's List).