New Poll! (2)

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Posted by Chris.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Coach on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW Automotive Electronics.

Posted on 6/1/99 6:29 AM MST


In Reply to: Just some thoughts... posted by Tom Vanderslice on 5/29/99 1:56 PM MST:



Proposal 2 sounds like a great idea. It's worked for a long time in golf.

I'm a big golf fan (and an avid golfer), and you got it almost right. The following cases get automatic tour cards for the next year:

1. top 125 on the money list (I think it's 125, I'm not 100% sure).
2. Tournament winners from the previous two years.
3. A winner of a special event within X number of years before (like the Player's Champion gains a 5 year exemption, World Series of Golf Champion gets like a 3 year exemption).
4. The top few (I think 15) on the money list of the Nike Tour (minor league tour).

If you don't fall into any of the three categories, you must go to qualifying school, which is a set of tournaments in which the top few get tour cards.

FIRST could use a similar format and have it be pretty successful. Take the top 100 from Nationals, winners of regionals, top qualifiers from regionals, and give them automatic bids to next year's nationals. The rest of the team would qualify through regionals.

Of course, I don't want to do any of this until the numbers of teams make it absolutely necessary. In the mean time, I would like to see everyone get to go to nationls.

-Chris


: Ok...basically every proposed idea falls into 2 categories...

: 1)
: Teams don't find out they are going to nationals until fairly soon
: before nationals...then they must arrange travel, etc...and things get
: even more expensive...now..i really dislike this idea...(see other
: messages) but i think it is better than..

: 2)
: Teams qualify for next years nationals this year. This skirts the
: 'unexpected expenses' problem...but brigns up a lot of issues like...
: first a foremost...SENIOR Student's mentality: seniors should be the
: leaders on the team...but if the seniors get the mentality of my team
: gets rewarded next year for what we do this year for the team...but we
: don't get to see anything unless last years team did well also and we
: get to go to nationals this year...students become less enthusiastic
: when they can't test their machine against this years top machines...

: one solution to this problem could be a combination of the two...
: something that i kind of thought of while sitting reading these messages
: kind of based on the concept of (gee of all 'sports' to choose from) PGA
: golf...now i won't claim to know the particulars...but from what i've
: gathered...golfers ont eh tour get to stay on if they've won $x amount of
: money or placed well enough in different qualifying tournamnets etc...and
: if you don't qualify then to get back ont eh tour you have to go through
: some qualifying school which i guess is some kind of group of tournaments
: where you can prove you belong on the tour (all you golf buffs out there
: will have to help this story out some...but you get the idea)...

: if we applied this concept to FIRST you could have the 'traditional powerhouses'
: the teams that placed well in recent years at both regionals and nationals
: and in the chairman's awards etc...and then the regionals can be the
: 'qualifying school' of sorts...so teams that have done well before KNOW
: they can go this year...but teams that haven't or who are rookies still
: have a chance at qualifying...now i haven't worked all this out i know
: there are still problems with it...but my thinking behind this is that it
: would alleviate some of the 'unexpected expenses' problem with not
: qualifying until a few months before...while allowing the traditionally good
: teams to get they're practice in at regionals etc...and not have to worry
: about a hardware problem or some other glitch where they perform poorly
: at regionals...but can be fixed...those kinds of things...

:
: another idea i just had about #2 would be to keep the same game a few years
: i don't like this solution either...i like the new game each year...
: the new challenge...that's what makes it fun...but it is apossibility...
: this would really turn it more into a sport that has basically a season
: when ther eis a competition ever weekend and you compete for the 'big dance'
: or whatever you want to call it...and in the end...that is probably what
: we are headed for...the biggest problem is...how much school/work can be
: missed for FIRST...but oh well...

: I'll stop writing for a while and think some more...

: Tom
: Team 275