from beta testing the perfect league size and organizaton

[nmleague]

After fooling around with the schedule editor some more I have come to a conclusion of what will be the perfect league size and organization for a pro league.

A league of 12 teams organized in three divisions of 4 teams each. Teams will play each team in their division 2 times (6 games) and each team in the other two divisions one time (8 games) for a total season of 14 games.

This works great with the schedule generator and editor. The schedule generator will generate a round robin for schedule (first 11 weeks) and then repeat it. So all someone has to do is use the first 11 weeks as generated, then edit the last 3 weeks of the season having a round robin within each division. It doesnt take all that long to edit those 3 weeks.

I had planned on doing one league with 12 teams, 2 divisions of 6 teams each. Again each team would play every team in their own division 2 times (10 games), but here is the rub, they only play 4 teams out of the 6 teams in the other divsion. It gets much more complicated editing the schedule becuase you cant use the complete round robin generated by the game. Just realized that by going to a 16 game schedule the same method outlined for the 3 division league will work, since then all teams in the other division will also get played one time. In which case the first 11 weeks of the generated schedule will be used and then last 5 weeks of the schedule edited so that teams play each team in their division a second time.

My planned college super league of 48 teams organized in 4 conferences of 12 teams is going to be a lot harder to edit [X(]

[redwolf1]

Well, I am going to try and get a 16 team custom league going - 2 conferences, 2 divisions of 4 teams in each...that is, when the next beta is finalized. 12 teams is too few for me, gotta have at least 16 (and just narrowing it down to only 16 teams and what fantasy teams I will use has been a real chore ).

[nmleague]

What length season will you use.  The schedule generator would generate a single round robin schedule.  If you have 16 teams that would mean a 15 week schedule, plus one more weak to make an even week season.  If you did have 4 divisions, each of 4 teams, you could go to a 18 week schedule, play ever team in the league one time for 15 weeks, then edit in 3 more weeks were each divisions plays a round robin withint he division, so the teams with in a division play each other 2 times.  Yes that wouldnt be hard to do also. 

[redwolf1]

You are right, your 18 game idea with my planned configuration wouldn't be too hard to do.

However, what I am really after is a 14 game schedule looking like this:

1) Each team plays each divisional opponent twices for 6 games
2) Plays the other four conference opponents once (6+4=10)
3) Plays 4 teams from the other conference. It is here where I would like to add some variation each year plus allow for a bit of a strength of schedule adjustment. If teams finished first or second in their division the previous season, they play the first and second placed teams in the other two divisions in the other conference. If they finished 3rd or 4th, then they play the 3rd and 4th placed teams. This makes up 4 more games for 14 in total.

I believe you mentioned somewhere that the schedule could be edited/changed with excel. Even though I am no programmer, if this is the case, then I am thinking that it would be possible for me to create a template for this desired schedule format which may automatically produce the schedule I want. I would just have to input in the order of finish (divisional orderings) from the previous season and have the template/formula calculate the schedule of who plays who and when. I think this is theorectically possible (?).

[nmleague]

Your plan sounds good, not as easy to set up with the current schedule generator, but if you have the time you can edit it. By the way David is including a schedule editor with release 3, but it wont create templates. Hopefully this will be one area that 3rd party utility developers will work on. My plans mentioned above had the objective of using as much as the schedule generated by the game, with a miniamal number of weeks that have to be edited at the end of the season.