Competitive Structure for Fictional League

[BKL]

I have played OOTP for four years now and always used the basic setup that comes with the game. I have decided to develop my own fictional league, to add variety and uniqueness to the game. I would appreciate any thoughts/input on the following matters regarding the league structure - I plan to have two leagues, 3 division each, 6 teams in each division, for a total of 36 teams.

(1) I originally thought having 36 total teams (as opposed to a smaller number) would make the league more competitive, but I simulated 15 season with a "beta" league and found that most of the time, the divison winner was ahead by 10+ games by the season's end. My objective is to have exciting division races during the year.

(2) I originally wanted interleague play, but opted against this because scheduling without interleague play is easiest - 18 games agains each division team and 6 games agains each non-division team within the league, for a total of 162 games. However, is there any advantage to having interleague play, from a competitive standpoint? If I add interleague play, I would have to drop about 20 divisional games in place of interleague games for each team - is this worthwhile?

(3) Right now, with no interleague play and 36 total teams, each team plays 90 divisional games and 72 INTRA-divisional games. Is this a good ratio? In MLB, most team's total divsional games represent about 45% of their total games; in my fictional league, divisional games represent 55% of the total games for each team. I am wondering if this is logical? Since I have larger divisions, I think it makes sense. However, if I play a more "balanced" schedule, do you think the league races would be more competitive? That is, a more balanced schedule might make it more difficult for divisional leader to break ahead of their divisional rivals.

Any thoughts, adivice would be appreciated regarding the structure and schedule.

Thanks,

BKL

[gmo]

I do not know necessarily what to make of your test league results other than to say that I think it just tends to happen that many races do not stay close all the way to season's end. Maybe enforcing financial rules more like the NFL can help teams more evenly matched and encourage NFL-style parity. Starting a league with a serpentine fantasy draft also helps balance out talent in the beginning.

As far as a schedule like the one you expect to use right now, there is one here: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...622#post771622

It is pretty heavily divisionally-weighted, so if a team runs away with a division I think you just have to accept that the team was good. Adding interleague would probably require pinching out division games since interdivision games are already so few with that schedule. You could have 1 or maybe 2 series per team against all 6 teams of one other division.

As long as you are having the teams within divisions playing essentially equivalent schedules, no matter how the matchups are spread out intradivision, interdivision, interleague, I think that is the best you can do to encourage equal competition.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by BKL

Right now, with no interleague play and 36 total teams, each team plays 90 divisional games and 72 INTRA-divisional games. Is this a good ratio? In MLB, most team's total divsional games represent about 45% of their total games; in my fictional league, divisional games represent 55% of the total games for each team.

The ratio of divisional to interdivisional games depends greatly on what year you're looking at. Back in the old two 6-team division days, 90 divisional contests and 72 interdivisional contests was the standard.

Ultimately, it really comes down to what you feel is best. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of 3 divisions in a league, precisely because if you want to have a relatively high number of divisional games it means the number of games against the teams in the other divisions is going to be rather low. I think it better to have a little more interaction between the teams in different divisions. But if you try to increase that, then the number of divisional games drops. All-in-all, it's much easier to balance these items nicely in a two division league rather than a three or four division league.

If it was me, in a three division league, I'd probably go for half of a team's schedule played inside the division, with the other half split amongst the other two divisions. But that's because I like a little more interdivisional action (it also helps to keep the wildcard race a little more fair as well).

I probably would not add interleague play, as it adds a level of complexity to the scheduling that really isn't worth the trouble. Depending on how the interleague play is set up, it may also add competitive fairness questions as well.