Custom Schedules for OOTPBM 2006

[cephasjames]

Is anyone taking requests yet? If so, I have one:

1 league
10 divisions:
-7,7,10,8,8,10,10,10,12,12
134 games
-88 within the division
-36 outside the division
-4 games vs. 1 team from every other division

Let me know if this is possible or makes sense. The reason I picked the numbers for the games is because my league will be set up like the NCAA where most games are in conference (division). I will also have six wild cards to go along with the 10 division winners so my post-season will be kind of long. It can start April 1st. No All-Star. I'd prefer 4 games series as average length, with off days.

[gmo]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

1 league
10 divisions: 7,7,10,8,8,10,10,10,12,12

I knew the new version would allow for more-than-40-team leagues, but I did not think the first I would see would be a 94-team league!

May indeed be a good idea to get a request in early. The new format for the importable schedule files is still not certain, but construction can still be done even if the end result cannot yet be produced.

In this particular case, I will have to do some thinking about how to work those inter-division games with varying numbers of teams per division and a couple of divisions with an odd number of teams. Before even that, a few questions...

Being NCAA-like, would you prefer the inter-division games be mostly if not all early in or at the start of the year? Again, I am not sure right now how well it can be constructed, but my first guess would be that you would like all the cross-regional games first then all the conference games the rest of the season.

Did you mean 98 intra-division games to total up to 134 games or indeed 88 for a total of only 124 games?

You say you would like pretty much 4-game series and with offdays. Does this mean you want it like a typical current MLB schedule that averages about 2 offdays for every 3 weeks, or do you want one such series a week with like 3 offdays early in the week? I am guessing because of the length of the schedule with the playoffs you want the former, but to do it with mostly 4-game series means giving up the baseball week that usually features 2 series (one Mon/Tue-Wed/Thu and one Thu/Fri-Sun) and just dropping in the games where they may fall with series spanning any range.

-4 games vs. 1 team from every other division

Minus 4 games?! How do you do that?!

[Dark Horse]

Originally Posted by gmo

Minus 4 games?! How do you do that?!

Looks like he's trying to set up rivalries...

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by gmo

I knew the new version would allow for more-than-40-team leagues, but I did not think the first I would see would be a 94-team league!

May indeed be a good idea to get a request in early. The new format for the importable schedule files is still not certain, but construction can still be done even if the end result cannot yet be produced.

In this particular case, I will have to do some thinking about how to work those inter-division games with varying numbers of teams per division and a couple of divisions with an odd number of teams. Before even that, a few questions...

Thanks for your quick response gmo

Originally Posted by gmo

Being NCAA-like, would you prefer the inter-division games be mostly if not all early in or at the start of the year? Again, I am not sure right now how well it can be constructed, but my first guess would be that you would like all the cross-regional games first then all the conference games the rest of the season.

Actually, whether that's easier or not, that'd probably be better than spreading them out through the season. So, yes, put the inter-division at the beginning.

Originally Posted by gmo

Did you mean 98 intra-division games to total up to 134 games or indeed 88 for a total of only 124 games?

What I was trying to do was make sure the 12 team divisions played at least 8 games per opponent (4 home, 4 away). 11 opponents x 8 games = 88. The 9 other divisions x 4 games in each division = 36. So I guess I meant 124.

Originally Posted by gmo

You say you would like pretty much 4-game series and with offdays. Does this mean you want it like a typical current MLB schedule that averages about 2 offdays for every 3 weeks, or do you want one such series a week with like 3 offdays early in the week? I am guessing because of the length of the schedule with the playoffs you want the former, but to do it with mostly 4-game series means giving up the baseball week that usually features 2 series (one Mon/Tue-Wed/Thu and one Thu/Fri-Sun) and just dropping in the games where they may fall with series spanning any range.

2 off days every 3 weeks would be good. Yeah, just put the games wherever they fall. It's a league in Michigan. They'll want to get done before there balls freeze. *cough* You know what I mean.

Originally Posted by gmo

Minus 4 games?! How do you do that?!

Well, that's for you to figure out

[cephasjames]

gmo, I changed the first two divisions from 7 & 7 to 8 & 8. I thought that might make it a little easier for you (I hope ).

[gmo]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

gmo, I changed the first two divisions from 7 & 7 to 8 & 8. I thought that might make it a little easier for you (I hope ).

Getting rid of the odd numbers helps a lot, but it is still a doozy. What I am trying to do with it is still get each team in the bigger divisions the one 4-game series against a team from every other division and thus giving extra interdivision series to many of the teams in the smaller divisions. Those teams were going to have extra games to be made up somewhere anyway, since 8 games per opponent is only 56 games in an 8-team division and 72 games in a 10-team division while it is 88 games in a 12-game division. They will still also have some extra series within the division because bumping them up from 9 to 10, 11, or 12 interdivision series will still not make up the difference in division games between the different-sized divisions.

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by gmo

Getting rid of the odd numbers helps a lot, but it is still a doozy. What I am trying to do with it is still get each team in the bigger divisions the one 4-game series against a team from every other division and thus giving extra interdivision series to many of the teams in the smaller divisions. Those teams were going to have extra games to be made up somewhere anyway, since 8 games per opponent is only 56 games in an 8-team division and 72 games in a 10-team division while it is 88 games in a 12-game division. They will still also have some extra series within the division because bumping them up from 9 to 10, 11, or 12 interdivision series will still not make up the difference in division games between the different-sized divisions.

I am totally fine with that. I knew it would be tough, but I was hoping it'd be possible. Thanks for still working on it.

If it feels like you might die from brain overload from working on this let me know. Though I really don't want to I'd be willing to make them all 10 team divisions.

[gmo]

Originally Posted by cephasjames

Though I really don't want to I'd be willing to make them all 10 team divisions.

Yeah, 10 tens, 8 twelves, of 12 eights would have been a whole lot easier. But I am into this far enough that I can see an end to it as is. It will just take quite a while to shake everything out.

It is unlikely there will be much variety in the offdays. It figures to be limited to putting them in the same place, then sliding some of the adjacent series by a day. So everybody will not have the exact same offdays, but they will be close to each other like:
XXXX Off ZZZZ, or
Off XXXX ZZZZ, or
XXXX ZZZZ Off

I am figuring everything will just go into 4-game series. The exception to this will be that some of the 4-game series should be broken up into, well, it will still be 4 games between the same teams, but 2 games will be at home for one team and the other 2 games will be at home for the other team. Since 124 games breaks down in 31 four-game series, that cannot give equal home/away total splits.

[cephasjames]

Originally Posted by gmo

Yeah, 10 tens, 8 twelves, of 12 eights would have been a whole lot easier. But I am into this far enough that I can see an end to it as is. It will just take quite a while to shake everything out.

It is unlikely there will be much variety in the offdays. It figures to be limited to putting them in the same place, then sliding some of the adjacent series by a day. So everybody will not have the exact same offdays, but they will be close to each other like:
XXXX Off ZZZZ, or
Off XXXX ZZZZ, or
XXXX ZZZZ Off

I am figuring everything will just go into 4-game series. The exception to this will be that some of the 4-game series should be broken up into, well, it will still be 4 games between the same teams, but 2 games will be at home for one team and the other 2 games will be at home for the other team. Since 124 games breaks down in 31 four-game series, that cannot give equal home/away total splits.

Sorry this is such a pain. But I really appreciate you working on it. I'm not in any super hurry (since the game isn't out yet) and whatever you work out will be fine. I know it won't be perfect simply because I didn't give you the perfect scenario, but I'll take whatever your willing to give.

[gmo]

FWIW, I have this laid out as far as I can, meaning done in OOTP6 format.

It runs from April 1 to the middle of August. Everybody plays 62 at home and 62 away. Talking about only the division games everybody plays either equal numbers of games home & away or one 4-game series more either home or away, except for a pair of teams in one division where one team plays 8 more at home than away and one team plays 8 more away than at home.

The 8-team divisions play 80 division games (12 against 6 teams and 8 against the other 1 team) and 44 interdivision games (one 4-game series against an opponent from the other 9 divisions plus two more 4-game series against other teams from selected divisions).

The 10-team divisions play 88 division games (12 against 4 teams and 8 against the other 5 teams) and 36 interdivision games (one 4-game series against an opponent from the other 9 divisions) or 84 division games (12 against 3 teams and 8 against the other 6 teams) and 40 interdivision games (one 4-game series against an opponent from the other 9 divisions plus one more 4-game series against another team from a selected division).

The 12-team divisions play 88 division games (8 against all 11 division opponents) and 36 interdivision games (one 4-game series against an opponent from the other 9 divisions).

[cephasjames]

gmo, that is awesome. Thank you very much. I know it was a pain so I really do appreciate it. It sounds good, like it will do exactly what I need it to do.