Is competing at multiple regionals REALLY fair ?

[dsmoker]

That was my point exactly, Brandon. I hope you didn't view my post as complaining about "big budget" teams. I don't resent them at all. I agree, as I stated earlier, that if a team has a smaller budget they have two options, which can work in tandem: (1) raise more money; and (2) learn how to do more with the money you have.

As for the life's not fair argument, I think the poster immediately after my first post said it better than I did. I think in today's society sometimes people feel entitled, that they should have all the same things others have. It takes work; if a team with a smaller budget wants to have the same budget as a larger budget team, you have to get out there and, as John Housemann used to say in those commercials, "earn it." Nothing worth getting isn't worth a little hard work.