OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Making a 162-game Schedule for 22 teams using Excel

Kirby Paquette · 04-27-2022, 10:36 AM

01 Planning: Games and Set Up

The first thing to do is planning. MLB-type schedules should be 52 series spread over 26 weeks (26 ½ weeks if considering the Allstar break). To help me visualized that, I lay up a matrix with all the series and games to be played. I plan the way I want my schedule to be. Here’s the lay up for a schedule of 162 games for 22 teams in two Sub-League (SL) of 11 teams, with Inter-League (IL). I have planned 52 series (6 X 4-game series, 46 X 3-game series) for each team.

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The planning here was quite difficult because of the complexity of the request. The request seems to be easy on paper but when it is time to plan, it is another story.

The matrix works this way: The number on top is the team of interest. The numbers on the left side, are the opposing teams. For the first situation, Team 1 will visit team 2 for one 4-game series. Team 1 will play at home against Team 2 for two 3-game series. Team 1 will visit Team 3 for two 3-game series and play at home against Team 3 for one 4-game series…

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I have translated all the matrix in series that I will use to build the schedule. Here are all the game series for the schedule.

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I use colors a lot. Here, I use Green for Intra-division series, Blue for IL. I use a darker shade for 4-game series. (I would use different colors if I have Intra-Division, Extra-Division or Inter-League matchups. I sometime use a fourth color to monitor East and West matchups).

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In black and underlined, the number of games of the series (that will be useful in the layout of the schedule later). In red, the first number is the “Away” team, the second number is the “Home” team. Be careful translating the Matrix. I sometime make mistakes here, badly translating “Away” and “Home” series. (The Schedule I am displaying here is complicated and I did a mistake that I will show later).

Next, align the series that will be played at the same time. Each team has to be shown once per lane. I have no specific way to aligned them. It is usually tries and errors. This could be intimidating at first. Sometime it is easy, sometime it is harder. With time, I developed tricks, but I am still working on how to align series. Here, what I can say is because of the odd number of team per SL, when Teams play Intra-League, one team in each SL have to play together (Inter-League).

Here’s the picture of how I aligned the series.

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04-27-2022, 10:36 AM	#2
Kirby Paquette Major Leagues Join Date: May 2009 Location: Montreal Posts: 308	01 Planning: Games and Set Up The first thing to do is planning. MLB-type schedules should be 52 series spread over 26 weeks (26 ½ weeks if considering the Allstar break). To help me visualized that, I lay up a matrix with all the series and games to be played. I plan the way I want my schedule to be. Here’s the lay up for a schedule of 162 games for 22 teams in two Sub-League (SL) of 11 teams, with Inter-League (IL). I have planned 52 series (6 X 4-game series, 46 X 3-game series) for each team. The planning here was quite difficult because of the complexity of the request. The request seems to be easy on paper but when it is time to plan, it is another story. The matrix works this way: The number on top is the team of interest. The numbers on the left side, are the opposing teams. For the first situation, Team 1 will visit team 2 for one 4-game series. Team 1 will play at home against Team 2 for two 3-game series. Team 1 will visit Team 3 for two 3-game series and play at home against Team 3 for one 4-game series… I have translated all the matrix in series that I will use to build the schedule. Here are all the game series for the schedule. I use colors a lot. Here, I use Green for Intra-division series, Blue for IL. I use a darker shade for 4-game series. (I would use different colors if I have Intra-Division, Extra-Division or Inter-League matchups. I sometime use a fourth color to monitor East and West matchups). In black and underlined, the number of games of the series (that will be useful in the layout of the schedule later). In red, the first number is the “Away” team, the second number is the “Home” team. Be careful translating the Matrix. I sometime make mistakes here, badly translating “Away” and “Home” series. (The Schedule I am displaying here is complicated and I did a mistake that I will show later). Next, align the series that will be played at the same time. Each team has to be shown once per lane. I have no specific way to aligned them. It is usually tries and errors. This could be intimidating at first. Sometime it is easy, sometime it is harder. With time, I developed tricks, but I am still working on how to align series. Here, what I can say is because of the odd number of team per SL, when Teams play Intra-League, one team in each SL have to play together (Inter-League). Here’s the picture of how I aligned the series.