Proposal for the 2 Championship format

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by asid61

I used 1114 as an example. My point, which I tried not to state blunty, was that this looks like a "winners' Champs" and a "losers' Champs" (this is hyperbole to explain what I am worried about), which is highly undesirable to me because of the selective removal of talent. At that point the so-called "Challenger" champs becomes a large regional.

Others have made suggestions about the Challenger champs could evolve into a number of Super Regionals, which is one answer. And others have pointed out that college football already works like this. There's a BCS that involves only 4 teams, yet there over 40 other bowl games. The teams playing in those games aren't complaining that they are playing in second tier post season events.

For many teams getting to the Challenger Champs will be their first goal and then moving on will be the next goal. Understand that we've just added 200 teams to Champs this year, and FIRST will be adding another 200 that would have never qualified before. They will be happy to just have any kind of event to aim for.

And we can't be overly worried about disappointing students. Trying to achieve true measured success is an important motivation. The "everyone's a winner" outlook that permeated kid's sports is falling into disfavor because it really isn't a good motivator. And what are we to do about the 2500+ other teams that don't qualify for either championship? How do we satiate their disappointment if that's so important?

And let's not forget the core principle used by FIRST to engineer cultural change: the competitive sports model. In that model, there are clear winners and losers and championships. Sports with multiple "champions" lose fan interest. College football recognized this in the late 1990s. College basketball went through dual NCAA/NIT champions into the 1950s before unifying. Pro baseball and football both unified competing leagues by first playing for a unified championship. Disappointment at not qualifying or winning are inherent in that model. And just as importantly is having a "top dog" that can be recognized by the sport's fans.

The tiered championships keeps the important incentives of clearly defining a winner while still opening up the festival experience to many more teams. Its a compromise to address the logistic problem of our expanding program while keeping the core of using the sports metaphor.