With the continued growth in USMS membership, I would submit that it's time to eliminate the regional teams at Nationals. Case in point: NCMS sent a "team" of 123 swimmers to Atlanta, enough to enter A, B, C, and D relays in many events (e.g. the mens 35+ 200 free relay in which our club team placed 13th behind eight regional teams). It's been argued that the formation of regional teams allows more swimmers to participate in relays, yet local clubs from North Carolina sent as many as thirty or more athletes and could have entered relays on their own as our club (with eight swimmers) did. Swim with the guys you actually train with.
I've read many different threads about Nationals scoring here and on the Nationals forum over the years. I've seen different arguments for and against the current system, super-teams, super-relays, various proposed rule changes, etc. And I've arrived at my conclusion. I JUST DON'T CARE. I don't know which team won at Atlanta. I don't know how my regional team did score-wise. Was the meet even scored this year? I don't know. There were many amazing swims, that's what's interesting to me. When someone gets really worked up about Nationals scoring (which in fairness, doesn't seem to be the case in this thread), even if I don't respond, rest assured that I'm laughing. Come over to the dark side, we have cookies :D
I've read many different threads about Nationals scoring here and on the Nationals forum over the years. I've seen different arguments for and against the current system, super-teams, super-relays, various proposed rule changes, etc. And I've arrived at my conclusion. I JUST DON'T CARE. I don't know which team won at Atlanta. I don't know how my regional team did score-wise. Was the meet even scored this year? I don't know. There were many amazing swims, that's what's interesting to me. When someone gets really worked up about Nationals scoring (which in fairness, doesn't seem to be the case in this thread), even if I don't respond, rest assured that I'm laughing. Come over to the dark side, we have cookies :D
