A lot of interesting points of view on this topic. While I feel large senior wasn't necessarily a dying division in the same terms unlimited coed it seems obvious that large divisions in general were on the decline in comparison to small. I think a great point to make is that when "large" was at it's peak we weren't experiencing the same level of all star competition that we experience now. The skills are harder, all star itself is more expensive with the multiple national attendance, and there are more divisions to choose from when deciding the best route for your program. There was a time when large was 25, then 30, then 35, then 36. When the large division reach 35/36 there was no USASF and there were no levels that required full squad tumbling and stunting difficulty. At that time there were a mixture of athletes that today would have been considered levels 3 thru 5 on a large team in terms of stunting and tumbling. I think back then it was more about creativity and playing on each athletes strengths. Believe or not there were girls who weren't beastly tumblers on WCSS who's primary role was being an amazing base. I think what may have made large a more difficult division to field is the leveling system which requires certain skills to be competitive at that level. With the ever changing system and the addition of more difficulty year to year some bigger programs decided to go small to have a chance to win and others are small because that's all they can field hence the growth of small and decline of large.
I personally think that 32 would have been a nice transition for large. If it seems to be the best decision for levels 1-4 why not 5? Why does level 5 seem to be the only division in chaos when making a decision? I thought the industry as a whole included all the levels but from the looks of it level 5 appears to hold more weight when it comes to these types of concerns.