Need unusual schedule ideas

Honorable_Pawn · 12-11-2012, 07:49 PM

I have one idea but am looking for others.

Settings: 8 Teams 1 division. 56 games

I am thinking of scheduling all games manually one day at a time. My idea is to pair the best team in the division against the 2nd place team no matter how many times they face one another. Same all the way down so that the bottom two teams play each other.

Will this likely lead to everyone having .500 record? What should I do about ties? What should I do about the first week or so?

Is there some other interesting ideas out there? Maybe a promotion/relegation schedule format based upon quarters of the season (every 14 game).

If you have any ideas please throw them out there. I'm all ears.

GiantYankee · 12-11-2012, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

I have one idea but am looking for others.

Settings: 8 Teams 1 division. 56 games

I am thinking of scheduling all games manually one day at a time. My idea is to pair the best team in the division against the 2nd place team no matter how many times they face one another. Same all the way down so that the bottom two teams play each other.

Will this likely lead to everyone having .500 record? What should I do about ties? What should I do about the first week or so?

Is there some other interesting ideas out there? Maybe a promotion/relegation schedule format based upon quarters of the season (every 14 game).

If you have any ideas please throw them out there. I'm all ears.

I'm pretty sure what you want to do is not possible. You can only adjust the schedule during the preseason or offseason.

LiquidTester · 12-11-2012, 11:57 PM

That would be a pain to do, and likely your middle 6 teams would be at around .500 with the top and bottom outliers. I had a 200 team league with 50 4-team divisions. I wrote a scheduling program to make it like the NFL's. Most games against division, played against 3 divionsin your league, one in the other and you played a roundrobin against the same place team from the previous year (#1 played every other #1, same for #2,3,4). It was 100 games total.

VanillaGorilla · 12-12-2012, 02:03 PM

Your best team will finish first, and your worst team will finish last. 50 games is a short season, so a hot streak by any team (10 games) may be enough to win in this environment.

Over a longer term, assuming the teams are not simply clones and there are injuries enabled, I would expect to see the 2-3 teams cycle, the 4-5 teams cycle, and the 6-7 teams cycle with the best team staying in the top 2 and the worst team staying in the bottom 2. It would probably take 50 games to get a real sense of which teams go where, and then you would see a steady dynamic as I describe, or something close to it, depending on the distribution of team strengths. You would not expect to see all teams with a .500 record (unless all teams are clones of the same parent and there is no injury factor).

Is a neat thought concept. If you can automate the scheduling to do what you describe here, I think it would be fun to see how things shake out over multiple 50 game seasons and compare those results to 154 game seasons.

Tigers13 · 12-12-2012, 03:35 PM

You could easily do this if you don't mind manually editing the schedule after every game. Or you could have the teams play 2 or 3 game series so you wouldn't have to do that every game. That is what I would do.

I guess you would always have the better team at home? That could be too much of an advantage for the first place team. I would probably switch every other game having the better team on the road.

For the first week you could randomly have the teams play and after the first season it would just go by last years standings for the first game. As for ties, I don't know, perhaps whichever team won their last game or whoever is better in their last 10.

VanillaGorilla · 12-12-2012, 03:42 PM

For home and away I would resolve this way:

Seed the teams at the beginning of the season by whatever method...previous years standings, random, by coolest mascot, whatever....

The first time two teams meet, the highest seed gets home field, the next time the lower seed, the third time they meet the higher seed plays at home, fourth time the lower seed, and so on. Not practical for a RL bicoastal league, but in OOTP there won't be any logistical nightmares.

Honorable_Pawn · 12-13-2012, 06:26 PM

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

I do plan on manually scheduling each game one at a time.

I wont be using a predefined schedule.

As far as my idea...I wasn't really liking it. I was hoping to get your ideas. Here's another thought that I am thinking of going with.

First, there will not be too many back-to-back games against the same opponent during the first 14 games. All teams in the league are within 1 hour of one another so travel is no problem. Each team will play each other team 2 times (home and home) for the first 14 games.

At that point, I could separate the top 4 teams (Group A) from the bottom 4 teams (Group B) in the schedule for the next round of games. What this means is that Group A teams will play their next round of games--thinking 12 games for this round--against other group A teams. Similarly, Group B teams will only play against other Group B teams for this round of games. Tie-breakers to determine the final seed of Group A at the end of each sunsequent round will be broken by a tie-breaker game and/or round robin, if necessary. Thus some teams will play an irregular number of games.

After the 2nd round of games are complete the team with the worst cumulative record from Group A will play its next round of games against group B. At the same time the team with the best cumulative record in Group B will play its next round of games against Group A. Rinse and repeat until the season is complete.

At season's end the team with the 2nd best record (cumulative) will host a best of 5 series with all games at the 2nd seed. 1st place team gets a bye. Then 1st place team will host a best of 5 series with all games at the #1 seed.

Please suggest alternative regular season ideas and/or playoff ideas. I will be using some new method from this thread in my upcoming league.

Thanks in advance.

12-13-2012, 06:26 PM	#7
Honorable_Pawn Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Tampa Bay Posts: 6,407	Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I do plan on manually scheduling each game one at a time. I wont be using a predefined schedule. As far as my idea...I wasn't really liking it. I was hoping to get your ideas. Here's another thought that I am thinking of going with. First, there will not be too many back-to-back games against the same opponent during the first 14 games. All teams in the league are within 1 hour of one another so travel is no problem. Each team will play each other team 2 times (home and home) for the first 14 games. At that point, I could separate the top 4 teams (Group A) from the bottom 4 teams (Group B) in the schedule for the next round of games. What this means is that Group A teams will play their next round of games--thinking 12 games for this round--against other group A teams. Similarly, Group B teams will only play against other Group B teams for this round of games. Tie-breakers to determine the final seed of Group A at the end of each sunsequent round will be broken by a tie-breaker game and/or round robin, if necessary. Thus some teams will play an irregular number of games. After the 2nd round of games are complete the team with the worst cumulative record from Group A will play its next round of games against group B. At the same time the team with the best cumulative record in Group B will play its next round of games against Group A. Rinse and repeat until the season is complete. At season's end the team with the 2nd best record (cumulative) will host a best of 5 series with all games at the 2nd seed. 1st place team gets a bye. Then 1st place team will host a best of 5 series with all games at the #1 seed. Please suggest alternative regular season ideas and/or playoff ideas. I will be using some new method from this thread in my upcoming league. Thanks in advance. __________________ PBA Quickstart for OOTP Background Images Collection All PBA games broadcast live on Steam. Last edited by Honorable_Pawn; 12-13-2012 at 06:31 PM.

12-11-2012, 07:49 PM	#1
Honorable_Pawn Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Tampa Bay Posts: 6,407	Need unusual schedule ideas I have one idea but am looking for others. Settings: 8 Teams 1 division. 56 games I am thinking of scheduling all games manually one day at a time. My idea is to pair the best team in the division against the 2nd place team no matter how many times they face one another. Same all the way down so that the bottom two teams play each other. Will this likely lead to everyone having .500 record? What should I do about ties? What should I do about the first week or so? Is there some other interesting ideas out there? Maybe a promotion/relegation schedule format based upon quarters of the season (every 14 game). If you have any ideas please throw them out there. I'm all ears. __________________ PBA Quickstart for OOTP Background Images Collection All PBA games broadcast live on Steam.

12-11-2012, 11:57 PM	#3
LiquidTester Minors (Single A) Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 64	That would be a pain to do, and likely your middle 6 teams would be at around .500 with the top and bottom outliers. I had a 200 team league with 50 4-team divisions. I wrote a scheduling program to make it like the NFL's. Most games against division, played against 3 divionsin your league, one in the other and you played a roundrobin against the same place team from the previous year (#1 played every other #1, same for #2,3,4). It was 100 games total.

12-12-2012, 02:03 PM	#4
VanillaGorilla All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 1,371	Your best team will finish first, and your worst team will finish last. 50 games is a short season, so a hot streak by any team (10 games) may be enough to win in this environment. Over a longer term, assuming the teams are not simply clones and there are injuries enabled, I would expect to see the 2-3 teams cycle, the 4-5 teams cycle, and the 6-7 teams cycle with the best team staying in the top 2 and the worst team staying in the bottom 2. It would probably take 50 games to get a real sense of which teams go where, and then you would see a steady dynamic as I describe, or something close to it, depending on the distribution of team strengths. You would not expect to see all teams with a .500 record (unless all teams are clones of the same parent and there is no injury factor). Is a neat thought concept. If you can automate the scheduling to do what you describe here, I think it would be fun to see how things shake out over multiple 50 game seasons and compare those results to 154 game seasons.

12-12-2012, 03:35 PM	#5
Tigers13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2007 Location: Arizona Posts: 32	You could easily do this if you don't mind manually editing the schedule after every game. Or you could have the teams play 2 or 3 game series so you wouldn't have to do that every game. That is what I would do. I guess you would always have the better team at home? That could be too much of an advantage for the first place team. I would probably switch every other game having the better team on the road. For the first week you could randomly have the teams play and after the first season it would just go by last years standings for the first game. As for ties, I don't know, perhaps whichever team won their last game or whoever is better in their last 10.

12-12-2012, 03:42 PM	#6
VanillaGorilla All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 1,371	For home and away I would resolve this way: Seed the teams at the beginning of the season by whatever method...previous years standings, random, by coolest mascot, whatever.... The first time two teams meet, the highest seed gets home field, the next time the lower seed, the third time they meet the higher seed plays at home, fourth time the lower seed, and so on. Not practical for a RL bicoastal league, but in OOTP there won't be any logistical nightmares.