Scheduling help? Suggestions wanted, I hate this part of the preparation!

[ccsitdown]

Hi all,
I've reached that dreaded moment before our draft where I have to come up with a working schedule. Every year I lose an entire day to this, working by trial and error. Does anyone have any suggestions to expedite the process?

We're a 20-team H2H league, four divisions, weekly matches and Sunday starts. What we need is a weighted schedule, as we climb from one division to the next in a promotion/demotion system not unlike soccer. So ideally, around 21 weeks, where teams play within their divisions twice and then the rest of their matches across other divisions, but with preference to the divisions closest to theirs.

Does anyone have an idea on how to do this best? It drives me mad every year. I've looked at some of the free schedulers online, but they are mostly built for football. We're on Fantrax, who, just like last year, says they will have this feature SOON, but doesn't offer it yet, and I'm sure they will not have it in time this year.

Help!
Many thanks.

[Eskimo Brother]

Can you assign a number to each slot in each division: team 1, team 2, etc, and then line those team numbers up with the new teams this year, and just run with the same schedule layout as last year?

[Pengwin7]

4 interdivision match-ups x 2 times = 8.
15 other teams x 1 time = 15.
This is 23 weeks... which is 2-weeks too many H2H match-ups for standard 21-week schedule.


We tabled an interesting concept in the WHL recently where teams play MULTIPLE opponents in SAME H2H WEEK.
It's a bit of a "hitch" - and got voted down - but it has some merit.


Here's how it would work (and you want to knock this out in first H2H week of season to get it "out of the way")
Start of season is usually a combined longer H2H (Oct 2-Oct 13).
For sake of discussion, Divisions are named A,B,C,D.
Top team in A, top team in B, top team in C, top team in D... all play each other in that week1.
It's a little "round robin tournament". You also have 2nd best teams in A/B/C/D square off... 3rds... 4ths... and 5ths.
[You could also group teams by "snake count"... so: 1-10-11-20 in one group... 2-9-12-19 in next group, etc...]
It IS an option for PAID fantrax. (not sure if you have that or not)

If your system is "combined point", then one team will go 3-0 (most points scored), one team will go 2-1, one team will go 1-2, one team will go 0-3 (least points scored).
If it is "one win per category win", then the records could be crazy and all over the place.

This *concept* basically runs THREE match-ups in ONE H2H week.
Then, you have the remainder of schedule with 4x2 and 12x1 (not 15x1) = 20 remaining weeks of typical ONE-on-ONE H2H play.

It could be a fun way to start the season.
(You also have to prepare that any "good" team that gets off to a bad start... 0-3 say... will complain about the system. Bound to happen.)

[ccsitdown]

That's an interesting suggestion, Pengwin, but I'm not looking to change our format, especially not this close to the start of the season. This league has been active fifteen years now. I've only been co-commish for the last four or five, during which time we contracted from 24 to 20, so the previous schedules are of no use, as during the contraction phase we went back to all-20 together, then two conferences, and now four divisions. So, really just hoping to find a short-cut to scheduling things the way we have.

As for how many vs whom, sure, 8 within the division is fine, and if we end up with 13 more after the first and last weeks are combined and we combine the bye-weeks (are they doing those again this year?), then we're fine with only playing 13 of the other 15. Preference would be given to teams in the division right next to yours, so for instance a top team would skip two of the bottom teams, etc.

As to the other suggestion of just using last year's schedule, well, last year we stuck to the divisions within the same two divisions, top 2 and bottom 2. But that got a little dull, playing only half the league, and playing the same 9 teams 21 times. So we'd like to spread it out a bit, but still weight it towards the division.

[Moses]

HONEST QUESTION: In a 20 team league that plays 21 weeks... why have divisions?

[butch]

have a double header a few times per season to accomplish it via the fantrax scheduling tools . Maybe to make it more division centric , have the double header v.s two other division foes .

theres a point in the nhl season in which theres multiple 50+ game weeks in which all teams play often enough for everyone in the double header to get enough gp's (not a soft week in the low 40's)

[ccsitdown]

Hah, it's lovely that you all have input as to how we might change our league format. But does anyone know of a good scheduling tool? No offense meant, I appreciate the ideas, but I'm not going to change the format of our league less than two weeks before the draft and less than a month before the season, that would take time and votes.

As to the double header suggestion, not sure I know what you mean. Fantrax only has three options, even in Premium. Everyone plays everyone (full random), all games within one division, or manual. Neither of the first two suit a tiered system. So looking for other options. Thanks again!

[als_revenge]

HONEST QUESTION: In a 20 team league that plays 21 weeks... why have divisions?

ANOTHER HONEST QUESTION - why would anyone want to commish (or co-commish) in a format this complicated? I barely understand the question lol.

(And sorry, no, I do not know of any online tools that will help you with scheduling; just the basic fantrax tools)

[Moses]

Not answering your question as it changes your format, but it does have a come with a scheduling tool.

I'd look at two random divisions of 10 to start the year. Each team then plays all the teams in its own division (9 games). After 9 games you re-division the league - top 10 teams in one division and the bottom 10 in the second division. Then each team plays all the teams in its own division again (9 games). After week 18 re-division the league relegating the bottom 3 teams in the top division and promote the top 3 in the bottom division. Then have the teams play within their own division for the final 3 weeks to sort out the final rankings.

The scheduling could be done as a matrix ahead of the season and would be repeatable year after year, satisfying your need to not having a yearly scheduling headache. Plug and play.

The first half of the season would be random assignments and would satisfy your leagues need to playing a wider variety of teams. The second half of the season would have the teams playing other teams of a similar caliber, satisfying you leagues need for fair competition. The 3rd reseeding would have the place importance on winning for the bottom division teams, and not losing for the top division teams.

[butch]

was going to suggest something but after reading original post its likely not what you need .