Byrne made mention of trying to change the qualification process. I think he's right. (He also has the luxury of 'knowing' that he'll autoqualify.)
There are 3 proposals here (http://www.ustfccca.org/division-i/division-i-proposals) that are 'in progress' since 2011.
They basically say that you should:
* autoqualify for regionals based on winning your conference. Some conferences may autoqualify more than 1 team to regionals based on conference strength (e.g., Pac 12, ACC, Big 10, etc.)
* at large bids are just for regionals, NOT nationals
* you have to earn your way to nationals based on being tops at regionals. no at large bids.
Great ideas! This crazy system with points awarded in Sept for a race in mid-Nov, but only if you beat an autoqualifier's 'A' team is nuts.
These proposals have some 'slop' too, but the slop is just for getting to regionals. Yes, you have to ensure that the regionals are of similar strength, but that's unavoidable if you're trying to get away from the current system.
Added benefit would be that conf champs mean something.
I didn't see it in the proposals, but I'd make it two weeks between regionals and nationals, with nats being the same date. So, you'd have to slide the other races back a week.
Why has no action been taken?