Schedule Request

[cardinalfan3000]

Hello people of OOTP. I was wondering if someone could make me a schedule with the following format
162 games
12 games against inside the division
everyone plays each team twice outside the division (One home series and one series on the road) for 6 games
The remaining 20 games are for interleague
I would love to have all the interleague rivals have 2 3 game sets against each other.
The remaining 14 interleague games will have one 3 game series and 2 home and home games against the non interleague rival teams
There are 40 teams each league has 20 teams with 5 divisions each with 4 teams. The divisions are North, South, Central, East and West.
The attached file is what the league looks like and who is in what division (I had to move a lot of teams and it took me a good day and a half to come up with this current league format.)
I will post the rivals in the comments if that would help. If anyone could make me a schedule that would be greatly appreciated
P.S i would like the Mariners to have a road trip where the play both LA teams.

[cardinalfan3000]

NLC
STL-KC
CLE-CIN
MEM-NSH
CHC-CWS



NLW
LAD-LAA
OAK- SF
SEA-POR
COL-SD (this feels weird typing btw)

NLN
MON-TOR
OMA-SALT LAKE
PIT-DET
MIL-MIN

NLS
HOU-TEX (love this rivalary as an interleague rivalary personally)
LV-ARI
MIA-TB
ATL-SAN ANTONIO

NLE
BAL- WSH
NYY-NYM
CHA-IND
BOS-PHI

The AL teams are on the left and NL teams are on the right. These are the rivalaries i would love to be enforced in my league thank you to whoever does this for me.

[cardinalfan3000]

Yes i put my team on the top. My team in my league is the Seattle Mariners btw if anyone was curious

[cheo25]

By my math, the league game total would be 132 so you would have 30 interleague games, not 20.

3 division foes x 12 games = 36
16 intraleague foes x 6 games = 96

I do like that you put the Astros back in the NL where they belong.

One other thing to note: If you schedule back-to-back LA trips for the Mariners in a given season, there's no guarantee that would hold in future seasons. The schedules know team ID numbers, not team names, and those ID numbers apparently change from season to season.

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by cheo25

By my math, the league game total would be 132 so you would have 30 interleague games, not 20.

3 division foes x 12 games = 36
16 intraleague foes x 6 games = 96

I do like that you put the Astros back in the NL where they belong.

One other thing to note: If you schedule back-to-back LA trips for the Mariners in a given season, there's no guarantee that would hold in future seasons. The schedules know team ID numbers, not team names, and those ID numbers apparently change from season to season.

I forgot to add each league plays the other NL teams twice each for 6 games (3 at home 3 on the road) that should cover the other 30 games?

[cardinalfan3000]

The the astros belong in the NL, but i realize that it will only hold for one season. I only want it for one series

[cardinalfan3000]

Also each team plays their oppisate division league counter part. Not all the other leagues. So for example i'd have 6 games against portland 4 against one team 2 against 3 more

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by cardinalfan3000

I forgot to add each league plays the other NL teams twice each for 6 games (3 at home 3 on the road) that should cover the other 30 games?

Ok so i misread your post so maybe i can increase the amount of division games?

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by cardinalfan3000

Hello people of OOTP. I was wondering if someone could make me a schedule with the following format
162 games
12 games against inside the division
everyone plays each team twice outside the division (One home series and one series on the road) for 6 games
The remaining 20 games are for interleague
I would love to have all the interleague rivals have 2 3 game sets against each other.
The remaining 14 interleague games will have one 3 game series and 2 home and home games against the non interleague rival teams
There are 40 teams each league has 20 teams with 5 divisions each with 4 teams. The divisions are North, South, Central, East and West.
The attached file is what the league looks like and who is in what division (I had to move a lot of teams and it took me a good day and a half to come up with this current league format.)
I will post the rivals in the comments if that would help. If anyone could make me a schedule that would be greatly appreciated
P.S i would like the Mariners to have a road trip where the play both LA teams.

Another user pointed out that this wouldn't work. So i increased the amount of division games from 12 to 15 and interleague games by 20 to 21 the 21st game would go into the interleague rivalaries and turn one home or road series into a 4 game series. Again i appreciate whoever takes the time and does this for me.

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by cardinalfan3000

Hello people of OOTP. I was wondering if someone could make me a schedule with the following format
162 games
12 games against inside the division
everyone plays each team twice outside the division (One home series and one series on the road) for 6 games
The remaining 20 games are for interleague
I would love to have all the interleague rivals have 2 3 game sets against each other.
The remaining 14 interleague games will have one 3 game series and 2 home and home games against the non interleague rival teams
There are 40 teams each league has 20 teams with 5 divisions each with 4 teams. The divisions are North, South, Central, East and West.
The attached file is what the league looks like and who is in what division (I had to move a lot of teams and it took me a good day and a half to come up with this current league format.)
I will post the rivals in the comments if that would help. If anyone could make me a schedule that would be greatly appreciated
P.S i would like the Mariners to have a road trip where the play both LA teams.

So the updated schedule would look like this.
162 games.
40 teams
2 sub leagues
Each division has 4 teams
5 divisions in total
All star game in 2nd week in July
with the following format:
45 games in division 15x 3
96 sub league games 6 games vs every other team
21 interleague games.
7 interleague rival games
6 games another random oppenent 3H 3A
2 home and home series against the remaining 2 interleague oppenents 2H 2A each.

I would love to see these rivalaries enforced as well
STL-KC
CLE-CIN
MEM-NSH
CHC-CWS



NLW
LAD-LAA
OAK- SF
SEA-POR
COL-SD (this feels weird typing btw)

NLN
MON-TOR
OMA-SALT LAKE
PIT-DET
MIL-MIN

NLS
HOU-TEX (love this rivalary as an interleague rivalary personally)
LV-ARI
MIA-TB
ATL-SAN ANTONIO

NLE
BAL- WSH
NYY-NYM
CHA-IND
BOS-PHI

Interleague goes as follow NLE vs ALE, ALW vs NLW (i'm in the ALW), NLC vs ALC, ALN vs NLN and NLS vs ALS
I attached an updated photo of what the league looks like

[Ruwisc]

Hey, sorry I haven't been able to get to this yet, dealing with some other requests (and I also just got a new job, so that's taking up a lot of time as well). I'm curious how attached you are to the specific numbers of games - the format you have now works in that it adds up to 162 games, but it would be 55 total series per team, which would mean it has to be longer than the real MLB schedule, with about 10 more off days. This little tweak, though, would make it match up with the MLB schedule exactly time-wise:

14 games vs division opponents (7H/7A)
6-7 games vs league opponents (3-4H/3-4A; 6 games vs 13, 7 games vs 3 for 99 total)
and then 21 interleague games, just like you had it.

Being able to cut out a few intra-divisional series from the calendar would get us down to 52 series total, the exact same as MLB is now. That way it'd fit into the same end-of-March, start-of-October timeline that we're used to.

I am also curious how you decided on your division alignment, since geographically it is kinda weird. I tried to reorder the divisions as well and I think this is decent. I hate separating Cards from Cubs as much as any sensible person but this is how I would do it:

swap Omaha to NL, Nashville to AL

AL West: Seattle, Oakland, LA Angels, Las Vegas
AL Central: Colorado, Kansas City, San Antonio, Texas
AL South: Memphis, Nashville, Tampa, Charlotte
AL North: Minnesota, White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland
AL East: Toronto, Boston, NY Yankees, Baltimore

NL West: Portland, San Francisco, LA Dodgers, San Diego
NL Central: Salt Lake, Omaha, Arizona, Houston
NL South: St. Louis, Cincinnati, Miami, Atlanta
NL North: Milwaukee, Cubs, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh
NL East: Montréal, Philadelphia, NY Mets, Washington

and interleague rivals can nicely be matched up in a similar way (in the order that I've listed them; Seattle/Portland, Colorado/Salt Lake, etc)

As far as targeting specific teams to play together (interleague rivals, or your wanting to have an all-LA road trip), that's a tricky thing to do in OOTP. It can work for the first season but as soon as the game rolls over to the next year, it will cycle the mapping between teams and schedule IDs so interleague rivals and individual matchups will be different. Still within the same division, but maybe a different team in that group. Since you're playing relatively similar numbers of games vs. each team in your interleague division (4-7), this wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me but I'll point it out anyway.

[cardinalfan3000]

I could look at moving some teams around better. The only reason indianapolis is in the east is because i had no other place to put them. As to answer your question i'm open to increasing the number of games but not by too much. I could move teams in different cities as well. IDK I'll take a look at my divisions and realign the divisions I do like the Nashville to AL thing and Omaha to AL but that would kill a rivalry. I can see what i can do

[cardinalfan3000]

I'm also fine with cutting a few division games as well (i'm awful with math)

[Ruwisc]

It’s still 162 games, just in fewer series (more 4-game sets, fewer 3-game sets). Shortens the season by making it so there are the same number of off days as the usual MLB schedule.

[cardinalfan3000]

I got it. OMA gets moved from the AL North to the NL North, IND gets moved from the NL East to the NL central where i want them and PIT gets moved to the NL East to reagnite their previous rivalry with PHI. Personally i feel STL isn't south enough for me to put them into the south (plus being a huge cardinals fan i cannot break the rivalry of cubs-cards i just cannot) and I needed to move Arizona out of the west. And they're more south than west. Some teams could move if i expand more idk i'll have to think about it some more

[cardinalfan3000]

The wierdly placed teams are there because i had nowhere else to put them

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by Ruwisc

It’s still 162 games, just in fewer series (more 4-game sets, fewer 3-game sets). Shortens the season by making it so there are the same number of off days as the usual MLB schedule.

Ok that's fine i like 4 game sets more than 3 games series.

[cardinalfan3000]

my problem is that if i move any of my teams i'd have uneaven amount of teams

[cardinalfan3000]

Originally Posted by cardinalfan3000

I got it. OMA gets moved from the AL North to the NL North, IND gets moved from the NL East to the NL central where i want them and PIT gets moved to the NL East to reagnite their previous rivalry with PHI. Personally i feel STL isn't south enough for me to put them into the south (plus being a huge cardinals fan i cannot break the rivalry of cubs-cards i just cannot) and I needed to move Arizona out of the west. And they're more south than west. Some teams could move if i expand more idk i'll have to think about it some more

So i tried your suggestion and i just had uneven teams no matter what, I might in the future move teams around if i expand again, but for now i kind of like the league how it is. I could in the future change the amount of divisions, but for now the weirdly placed teams are because i had no other place to put them (i tried moving them)

[Ruwisc]

Got a schedule for ya.

----------
Schedule for 40 teams, 162 games - 2 subleagues, each containing 5 divisions of 4 teams
Interleague YES, balanced games NO
----------
14 games vs. 3 division opponents (7H/7A)
6-7 games vs. 16 league opponents (3-4H/3-4A)
4-7 games vs. 4 interleague opponents (2-4H/2-4A). Interleague opponents are all from the corresponding division, so you'll play the same teams year over year.
----------
Season begins on a Friday in late March and ends on a Sunday in late Sept./early Oct. This is one day shorter than the typical modern MLB schedule (185 days)
Weekday games begin at 7:05 local time; Sunday games at 1:05, and Saturdays a mix between 1:05, 4:05 and 7:05
All-Star Game in the normal spot, a Tuesday in early/mid July
Most interleague games are scheduled between the beginning of May and the All-Star break, but there are a few others sprinkled throughout the season as well.
----------
Most homestands and roadtrips will be in the 6-10 game range. Longest road trip I was able to spot was 13 games, and there are just a couple of those across the whole league so pretty rare.
The last week and a half is all division games, each team getting a final crack at all three of their division rivals.


------------------------

If you're still looking for advice about how to realign your divisions, I have some tips, and kind of a walkthrough as to how I would do it.

- the main thing I wanted to say is, the names of the divisions don't actually matter. The whole point is to reduce travel distance for teams, so what you want to do is cluster teams together first, and come up with a name for the division at the end. For example, I wouldn't call Pittsburgh "central" or Indianapolis "southern", yet the Pirates are in the NL Central and the Indianapolis Colts are in the AFC South, because that's how the math works out when you divide divisions evenly. You can name the divisions whatever you want - Division 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you can name them after your favorite rides at Six Flags, whatever, anything. It's more important, and more realistic, just to make sure the teams in each division are close to each other. I see this a lot with other people's realignments. The hallmark is having an NL South division stretching from Phoenix to Miami like you do. Those teams are so far apart that it doesn't make sense for them to be in the same division - that's like a 5-hour flight.
- you also want to consider time zones if possible, for more realism. The other reason why Phoenix and Miami don't really work in the same division is because they're three hours apart during the season. Don't want a divisional rivalry game starting at 10 PM Miami time if you can help it.
- the other tip I have is to find yourself a blank map or something and open it up in Paint, or another image editing software. It can be way easier to organize your divisions if you can see how well you're doing at keeping teams together.

With all that said I'll walk you through how I would realign your league, and this time I'll do my best to keep the Cards and Cubs together. Here are the steps I try to follow:

1. Make a list of the rivalries you think are important enough that they shouldn't be broken up under any circumstances. In MLB, this list is usually Yankees-Red Sox, Cardinals-Cubs, and Giants-Dodgers, but you can add to that if you like.
2. Next, find any pairs of cities in the same league that are close enough together that it wouldn't make sense to split them up. We're talking, like, Brewers-Cubs, Dodgers-Padres level of close. If we combine those groups with the important rivalries in step one, we start to get the bare bones of some divisions. This step is where the map starts to be useful.
3. From there, pick a part of the country that looks more difficult to fill than the other parts. (I find that it usually works best to go from west to east in the US, since western teams are usually further apart and there's a big area with few or no teams at all.) Fill out a division with teams from that part of the country, making sure not to break up any important pairs or groups.
4. Repeat step 3 until you're done, basically. If there's a section where it looks nearly impossible to fill out a division sensibly without breaking up the teams weirdly, that's when I look into making a team switch from one league to the other.

And here's how I would apply those steps to your league. Starting with the AL:



1. The only rivalry that must, must be preserved is Yankees-Red Sox.
- NYY, BOS

2. Other cities close enough that they really should be in the same division: Texas/San Antonio, Omaha/KC, maybe Detroit/Cleveland? You have some discretion here but that's what I would do.
- NYY, BOS
- TEX, SA
- OMA, KCR
- DET, CLE

3. Looking at the map, a western division jumps out right away. There are 4 teams in the Pacific time zone, which is perfect. Put those four in a division together.
- Division 1: SEA, OAK, LAA, LVG
- NYY, BOS
- TEX, SA
- OMA, KCR
- DET, CLE

4. Now we start to get a little more constrained. It would be nice to combine the pairings of TEX/SA with OMA/KCR and make that a four-team division, but that leaves the Rockies without any partners. But there is a way out: Colorado would rather be with the OMA/KCR pairing, and adding Minnesota to that mix creates a nice 4-team block.
- Division 1: SEA, OAK, LAA, LVG
- Division 2: COL, OMA, KCR, MIN
- NYY, BOS
- TEX, SA
- DET, CLE

5. Now a southern-ish division is popping up. It'd be really nice to put Memphis, Tampa and Charlotte all together, but now the two Texas teams need to go with this group. So we leave Charlotte alone for now, they'll fit into a more easterly division better than the others.
- Division 1: SEA, OAK, LAA, LVG
- Division 2: COL, OMA, KCR, MIN
- Division 3: TEX, SA, TBR, MEM
- NYY, BOS
- DET, CLE

6. Eight teams left. Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, Charlotte, Baltimore, New York, Boston. If you've got a map up with the cities marked, a dividing line kinda suggests itself:
- Division 1: SEA, OAK, LAA, LVG
- Division 2: COL, OMA, KCR, MIN
- Division 3: TEX, SA, TBR, MEM
- Division 4: CHW, DET, CLE, TOR
- Division 5: CHA, BAL, NYY, BOS



Voila

7. Now, and only now, we should decide what the divisions will be called.
- East: CHA, BAL, NYY, BOS
- North: CHW, DET, CLE, TOR
- South: TEX, SA, TBR, MEM
- Central: COL, OMA, KCR, MIN
- West: SEA, OAK, LAA, LVG

That's a nice AL setup that doesn't require us to switch any teams between leagues. The NL, in the case of your league, is trickier, and I bet you can figure out why:



That huge gap in the middle has 6 teams on one side and 14 on the other, so one division will have to straddle that gap with 2 teams per side. With that in mind:

1. Two rivalries are critical:
- LAD, SFG
- STL, CHC

2. A few pairs of cities are close enough to try to make sure we tether together.
- LAD, SFG, SDP
- STL, CHC, MIL
- NYM, PHI

3. We should try to take care of the west first, since there are six teams separated from everyone else. The three California teams are already together and you made the right call putting them with Portland:
- Division 1: LAD, SFG, SDP, POR
- STL, CHC, MIL
- NYM, PHI

4. Now it gets a little weird. SLC and ARI should definitely be placed together, as they're the two remaining western teams. But which two teams do we put them with? Geographically, the next closest NL teams are STL and HOU, but if we don't want to split up the Cards and Cubs we're a little stuck here. At this point there are two options. We can put STL and CHC out west and split the Brewers off, or we can split MIL off with HOU to go out west. Because your schedule has corresponding divisions in interleague play, I think the first choice is better. (The AL Texas teams are in a south division, so we should group Houston with the south as well)
- Division 1: LAD, SFG, SDP, POR
- Division 2: SLC, ARI, STL, CHC
- NYM, PHI

5. Now, a division of southern teams really presents itself.
- Division 1: LAD, SFG, SDP, POR
- Division 2: SLC, ARI, STL, CHC
- Division 3: HOU, MIA, NSH, ATL
- NYM, PHI

6. There are eight teams left now, and we can split them along the same line that currently divides the real NL Central and NL East.
- Division 1: LAD, SFG, SDP, POR
- Division 2: SLC, ARI, STL, CHC
- Division 3: HOU, MIA, NSH, ATL
- Division 4: MIL, IND, CIN, PIT
- Division 5: WSH, PHI, NYM, MTL



Kind of a bummer splitting up the Cubs and Brewers, but I think that was the least bad choice.

Now, those divisions can get the same names that the corresponding AL divisions have:

- East: WSH, PHI, NYM, MTL
- North: MIL, IND, CIN, PIT
- South: ATL, MIA, NSH, HOU
- Central: SLC, ARI, STL, CHC
- West: LAD, SFG, SDP, POR

That looks pretty good I think. The only issue is the 2-hour time gap between Arizona time and CDT in the Central division, but that was unavoidable I think.

I hope this was actually helpful lol. Either way I just like talking about this stuff so feel free to totally ignore my advice. The main thing I wanted to say was bolded up top, don't get too caught up in what your divisions are called. Just put teams together that make sense together and name the divisions at the end. Anyway, enjoy the schedule!