The "Wildcard" system of qualifying teams to the next level of competition began in 20__? (look this up) at the state level.  Shortly after, a teacher in our area submitted a proposal for us to have a similar system in place for our LDE's and SDE's.  These qualifications can sometimes be confusing to a new AND veteran FFA advisor, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

LDE Wildcard System 

(Proposal passed 7/26/ 2022)

Third place LDE teams will be given the opportunity to compete for any remaining open slots at the Area LDE.  There will be a maximum of 12 total teams competing and 2 guaranteed per district at the area level.  This 3rd place wildcard event would happen within the week leading up to the Area I FFA Leadership Development Event Contest and will be held at West Texas A&M University.  If a school already has one team advancing to the Area level event the third-place team from that school will not be eligible to compete at the wildcard event.  If all 12 slots are filled in advance of the wildcard event (2 schools) advanced from each district) the wildcard event will not be held for that specific event.  The 3rd place teams will only be eligible to compete for the number of slots that are open.  (i.e if the Radio event only has 11 teams entered in an area, the 3rd place teams that choose to compete would be competing for the 1 open slot.)  The 3rd place team(s) that advance to the area level contest will compete as the 2nd place team of the district that did not send two (2) teams.  (i.e if Greenbelt has a 3rd place team advance to Area in Greenhand Chapter Conducting, and Top O’ Texas only sent one team to the area in Greenhand Chapter Conducting team, the 3rd place Greenbelt team would compete at the area LDE contest in the designated time slot for the second place Top O’ Texas team.)