New FIRST competition structure in Michigan

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Ken Streeter

I'm also very glad that the regional we attend in NH isn't abutting Michigan -- I think Michigan teams venturing out of state to late-season regionals will enjoy a significant advantage with respect to increased playing experience as compared with the non-Michigan teams at those same regionals. (The same holds true for the Michigan teams attending the Championships.)

Question is, when will the district events and MI championship be scheduled relative to the adjoining out of state regionals?

[dtk]

The single largest reason why the district events are being limited to Michigan teams only for the 2009 season is logistics. The amount of work required to start up a single new event is enormous. For 2009 Michigan is going to go from three events to a total of eight. This number of events should just barely ensure two spots for every team in the state, depending on the number of rookies. It was simply not feasible to add enough events to have slots available for out of state teams. This, however, does not preclude that possibility from existing in the future.