Scheduling for an OCD person

[Ike348]

Dilemma:

22 teams in one sub-league, 20 in the other. I can either have:

In 22 team league, each team plays each opponent 8 times 21*8 = 168
In 20 team league, each team plays each opponent 8 times 19*8 = 152
In this scenario, the teams in the sub-leagues don't play the same amount of games. This causes the magic numbers to be off for one, or both, sub-leagues. This also causes an obvious OCD thing.

OR

In 22 team league, each team plays each opponent 8 times 21*8 = 168
In 20 team league, each team plays each opponent 8 times PLUS 4 random opponents 4 times 19*8 + 16 = 168
In this scenario, the teams in the sub-leagues don't play the same amount of games against each team. There is nothing truly wrong with this, except it creates an OCD problem far worse (for me, anyway) than the first.

So, what do you suggest?

If I don't get any responses I'll move this to General Discussions.

[joefromchicago]

Can't offer much help on the OCD thing. The second option works better for me, but that's just me.

Those are pretty big leagues - why aren't you splitting them into divisions? There are plenty of schedules available for 20-team and 22-team leagues that feature divisional play.

[Ike348]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Can't offer much help on the OCD thing. The second option works better for me, but that's just me.

Those are pretty big leagues - why aren't you splitting them into divisions? There are plenty of schedules available for 20-team and 22-team leagues that feature divisional play.

I have 7/6/7 and 7/8/7. No two schedules (correct me if I'm wrong), have that same setup, and the same amount of games for each. Most of the 20 or 22-team schedules are for two sub-leagues only, and obviously I would need 1 sub-league only, or completely balanced interleague play.

I guess the only true solution is to do some reallignment, but even then, I'll still have the uneven opponents issue.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Ike348

I have 7/6/7 and 7/8/7. No two schedules (correct me if I'm wrong), have that same setup, and the same amount of games for each. Most of the 20 or 22-team schedules are for two sub-leagues only, and obviously I would need 1 sub-league only, or completely balanced interleague play.

I guess the only true solution is to do some reallignment, but even then, I'll still have the uneven opponents issue.

You're going to have problems as long as you divide the 20-team league into three divisions. Four divisions of five teams each, on the other hand, would be fairly easy to schedule:

18 games v. divisional opponents: 18*4 = 72
6 games v. non-divisional opponents: 6*15 = 90
Total: 162

All series would be three games in length. That schedule, in fact, can be found here.

You're going to have problems with a 22-team league no matter how you divide it up. You might do two divisions of eleven teams each, with each team playing divisional opponents ten times and non-divisional opponents six times for a total of 166 games, but that would mean juggling two- and three-game series. It would be a mess. It gets even worse if you do three or four divisions. The best I can suggest for your 7/8/7 alignment is this:

Teams in 7-team divisions:
6 games against non-divisional opponents: 6*15 = 90
12 games against divisional opponents: 12*6 = 72
Total: 162

Teams in 8-team division
6 games against non-divisional opponents: 6*14 = 84
11 games against 6 divisional opponents: 11*6 = 66
12 games against 1 divisional opponent: 12*1 = 12
Total: 162

Not terribly elegant, and I don't know how that affects your OCD, but at least it's theoretically possible. I don't envy you trying to construct that kind of schedule, but if you make it work, you should post it.

[Ike348]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

You're going to have problems as long as you divide the 20-team league into three divisions. Four divisions of five teams each, on the other hand, would be fairly easy to schedule:

18 games v. divisional opponents: 18*4 = 72
6 games v. non-divisional opponents: 6*15 = 90
Total: 162

All series would be three games in length. That schedule, in fact, can be found here.

You're going to have problems with a 22-team league no matter how you divide it up. You might do two divisions of eleven teams each, with each team playing divisional opponents ten times and non-divisional opponents six times for a total of 166 games, but that would mean juggling two- and three-game series. It would be a mess. It gets even worse if you do three or four divisions. The best I can suggest for your 7/8/7 alignment is this:

Teams in 7-team divisions:
6 games against non-divisional opponents: 6*15 = 90
12 games against divisional opponents: 12*6 = 72
Total: 162

Teams in 8-team division
6 games against non-divisional opponents: 6*14 = 84
11 games against 6 divisional opponents: 11*6 = 66
12 games against 1 divisional opponent: 12*1 = 12
Total: 162

Not terribly elegant, and I don't know how that affects your OCD, but at least it's theoretically possible. I don't envy you trying to construct that kind of schedule, but if you make it work, you should post it.

Thanks for the response. I will definitely realign the 20-team league to fit that schedule.

For the 22-team league, I like your 11/11 idea. As for jugglinng 2-and-3-game series, I don't mind that. I actually rather like 2-game series, except that manually scheduling and mixing them with 3-gamers it would be a pain in the ass. And that also narrows the game difference gap from 16 to 6, and creates a nice un-balanced schedule. As soon as I have time, I'll get to work.

[Ike348]

Well, after doing a bit of digging around, I couldn't find a schedule that matched the 20-team setup or the 22-team setup with even home/road splits and the like.

I will keep the even divisions, but I will go back to the original balanced schedule idea.

Thanks for all your help joe, sorry I couldn't make any use of it.