Schedule Notes

I've been using the same general template for the FLOF schedule since we broke out into 3 divisions 3 years ago.

The basic idea of that system is that every week one division would play another division and the third division would play inside their division. So week 1 would see division A play divisional games. Week 2 = B, week 3 = C. Then, I rotated that pattern to add variety. So the actual pattern was C A B B C A A B C C A B. Then I would finish off the season with two weeks where everyone played inside their division. This skewed divisional games toward the end of the season and was designed to add drama to division races, which it often did. Then in order to keep everyone from having the same-ish schedule from year to year I rotated who was division A, B, C.

One thing I did not love about this system is that it created unbalanced schedules when looked at over different parts of the season. For instance, after week 7 everyone had played half their games but division A had played 3 division games while everyone else had played only 2. It wouldn't be until week 8 that members of division C would have played everyone in their division for the first time.

So, this year I tried a couple different approaches -- some radically different. In the end I found a simpler solution that I like. I moved the last week of the season to the start of the season. This means that week 1 now features everyone playing someone from their division. It also means that by week 7 everyone will have played everyone else in their division once and will have played 2 teams from each of the other two divisions. Ah, the balance I was looking for.

I was also able to weed out all instances where teams had runs of 3 or more games in a row at home or away. This used to plague me a lot in the old system for some reason.

One thing I hope to try to ditch next year is back-to-back games against the same opponent that one division ends up with. This was a "feature" of the old system too and I while it was sometimes fun, I don't really like it because if you are having roster issues for a couple weeks it can really skew your record against a division opponent. I tried to get rid of it this year but was unable to because I kept ending up with runs of 3 or more home or road games for someone when I tried to move it. So I gave up. Of course, the victims are Steve and I for the second year in a row.

Other things I do with every schedule is to have everyone face every other team in their division once before repeating those opponents. I also keep the front half and back half of a team's division schedule balanced home-away. So I don't give one team all home division games in the first half of the season. Every team also plays half of their games against any other division at home. So I play half my games against middle division opponents at home -- same for the right division.