ChampionSplit: A Historical Perspective

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Alex2614

Nobody was complaining about 25% of teams going to the championship in years past. Nobody was shouting "EVERYBODY CANT BE WINNERS! THERE ARE TOO MANY TEAMS HERE!!"

<snip>

This is not true. There has been a large group of people, not the majority by any stretch but not one or two odd balls out in left field, that have said for years now that the World Championships are in fact, too big. The entire Division Structure of the Worlds came up as a response to many of people saying, "there are just too many teams for one competition." The largeness of the Worlds is awesome. But I do think that it can get too big.

If I had my way, I would ask the question this way: How many teams should attend the World Championships such that it maximizes FIRST's chances of getting the event picked up as a Prime Time show on TV? I think by this standard, even 400 teams is higher than optimum.

Read my rant above, but I still believe that the fastest way for FIRST to make the cultural change that it seeks is to get the World Championships on TV.

Dr. Joe J.