Scheduling a 12-team league

[chroniciguana 13]

A few of our owners have seemingly just discovered that in our 12-team league, you don't get to play everyone twice over the course of a 14 week regular season. It apparently took them more than a decade to figure this out.

 

I reckon my three years of ninth grade math are finally paying off. The commish has asked me to come up with alternatives. He gave it a shot, but his plan would require teams to play themselves. Not good, especially if Mommy walks in on you.

 

I figured my "report" or whatever would have a bit more class if I dressed it up with opinions from a few Geeks who are also in 12-team leagues. Or anyone else. And the 17-week schedule stays. Fought and lost that battle too many times.

 

Current schedule: Fourteen-week regular season. You play everyone once, and three randomly selected teams twice. Three week playoff involving six teams. Problem(s): Crybaby owners whining about who they have to play twice. Or who somebody else gets to play twice. Or avoids playing twice. You get it.

 

Option 1: Sixteen week regular season. Play everyone in your division twice (10 games) and everyone in the other division once (6 games). Problem(s): This leaves us with no playoffs and a one-game championship.

 

Option 2: Fourteen week regular season. Play everyone in your division twice (10 games) and four games against randomly selected teams in the other division. Problem(s): See issues with current schedule and random team selection. Also, there will be two teams you don't play at all. Cue crybabies.

 

There is another option out there that would divide the league into two, six-team conferences with each conference having two, three-team divisions. This one doesn't solve anything. And I get a headache thinking about it.

 

Is there a scheduling option we've missed? How does your 12-team league do its schedule? And yes, playing our championship game on Week 17 is ... developmentally delayed.

[Laurence Maroney's Nuts 2]

A few of our owners have seemingly just discovered that in our 12-team league, you don't get to play everyone twice over the course of a 14 week regular season. It apparently took them more than a decade to figure this out.

 

I reckon my three years of ninth grade math are finally paying off. The commish has asked me to come up with alternatives. He gave it a shot, but his plan would require teams to play themselves. Not good, especially if Mommy walks in on you.

 

I figured my "report" or whatever would have a bit more class if I dressed it up with opinions from a few Geeks who are also in 12-team leagues. Or anyone else. And the 17-week schedule stays. Fought and lost that battle too many times.

 

Current schedule: Fourteen-week regular season. You play everyone once, and three randomly selected teams twice. Three week playoff involving six teams. Problem(s): Crybaby owners whining about who they have to play twice. Or who somebody else gets to play twice. Or avoids playing twice. You get it.

 

Option 1: Sixteen week regular season. Play everyone in your division twice (10 games) and everyone in the other division once (6 games). Problem(s): This leaves us with no playoffs and a one-game championship.

 

Option 2: Fourteen week regular season. Play everyone in your division twice (10 games) and four games against randomly selected teams in the other division. Problem(s): See issues with current schedule and random team selection. Also, there will be two teams you don't play at all. Cue crybabies.

 

There is another option out there that would divide the league into two, six-team conferences with each conference having two, three-team divisions. This one doesn't solve anything. And I get a headache thinking about it.

 

Is there a scheduling option we've missed? How does your 12-team league do its schedule? And yes, playing our championship game on Week 17 is ... developmentally delayed.

 

http://tinyurl.com/34ch3bv

[gtthom86 5]

We have three 4 team divisions. start the season by playing 3 division games, then play every team in the other divisions once. finish the season with 3 more division games. so 14 week regular season, where you play your divisional opponents twice, every other team once.

 

playoffs are 3 top seed from each division and a wild card. 2 week playoffs.

[RoadLizard 73]

We have three 4 team divisions. start the season by playing 3 division games, then play every team in the other divisions once. finish the season with 3 more division games. so 14 week regular season, where you play your divisional opponents twice, every other team once.

 

playoffs are 3 top seed from each division and a wild card. 2 week playoffs.

 

Isnt that 13 total games then? We also have 4 divisions of three teams each. 12 total teams. Here goes:

 

- You play your divisional opponents twice each = thats 4 games total

- You play everyone else once = thats 9 other games

 

13 total games. Then, we have 2 playoff rounds and the Super Bowl and finish up on week 16. I dont get where you get 14 regular season games from.????

[chroniciguana 13]

Isnt that 13 total games then? We also have 4 divisions of three teams each. 12 total teams. Here goes:

 

You read it wrong. He has three, four-team divisions. Not four, three-team divisions.

[chroniciguana 13]

We have three 4 team divisions. start the season by playing 3 division games, then play every team in the other divisions once. finish the season with 3 more division games. so 14 week regular season, where you play your divisional opponents twice, every other team once.

 

playoffs are 3 top seed from each division and a wild card. 2 week playoffs.

 

Never considered going from two to three divisions. Not sure why not. Great solution. There will be whining, of course, but still a great solution. Thanks.

[JT 137]

Never considered going from two to three divisions. Not sure why not. Great solution. There will be whining, of course, but still a great solution. Thanks.

 

It's how we do it as well. For a few years we left the divisions alone from year to year. Now we draw prior to the draft for divisions. Always different opponents, keeps things fresh.

[BarNinja 1]

We have three 4 team divisions. start the season by playing 3 division games, then play every team in the other divisions once. finish the season with 3 more division games. so 14 week regular season, where you play your divisional opponents twice, every other team once.

 

playoffs are 3 top seed from each division and a wild card. 2 week playoffs.

 

That's basically how the OPs league is set up except they don't call them divisions. Play 3 teams twice and everyone else once. If you determine divisions randomly, it is exactly the same. Add in that one division could be much weaker but the top team still gets into the playoffs and the crying will be deafening. I'd rather be divisionless and have top 4 teams in than risk one division being made up of scrub teams and let in that "winner" over a more deserving team from a different division.

[JT 137]

That's basically how the OPs league is set up except they don't call them divisions. Play 3 teams twice and everyone else once. If you determine divisions randomly, it is exactly the same. Add in that one division could be much weaker but the top team still gets into the playoffs and the crying will be deafening. I'd rather be divisionless and have top 4 teams in than risk one division being made up of scrub teams and let in that "winner" over a more deserving team from a different division.

 

You mean, like every pro sport does it?

[Bomberman 0]

12 team league. Two divisions of 6 teams. Play every team in your division twice and each team in the other division once.

 

To make this work you need three double headers weeks(play two teams in the same week as separate games). Double-headers are an option in MyFantasyLeague, not sure about other sites. I made sure that double headers did not fall on NFL bye weeks.

 

Eight teams make the play-offs. Top two in each division (division winners get 1st round bye in the playoffs) and the next best 4 teams regardless of division.

 

This is my first year using double-headers. We had one in week 3 and it went well.

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,625]

we had this issues as well, and the simple solution was to add double headers

 

13 week regular season you play 22 games each team 2x. You schedule it so you play doubleheaders weeks 1-2-3, 11-12-13, 5-7-9 that way 6 of your double headers are during full strength weeks, and during the NFL byes you only play doubleheaders in 3 of the weeks

[chroniciguana 13]

we had this issues as well, and the simple solution was to add double headers

 

13 week regular season you play 22 games each team 2x. You schedule it so you play doubleheaders weeks 1-2-3, 11-12-13, 5-7-9 that way 6 of your double headers are during full strength weeks, and during the NFL byes you only play doubleheaders in 3 of the weeks

 

We discussed double-headers, but like most things in our league the conversation wound up going where the trains don't run. Have already talked to the commish and a few owners and they are good with the three division idea. The only change (based on past failed efforts to have the Super Bowl on Week 16, not Week 17) is that we would go with a three-week playoff involving the division winners and three wild cards. We think we have a plan.

 

I wasn't going to post this question, but I'm glad I did. The solution was right there, but none of us saw it. Too many years of doing the same thing, I guess.

[Third Down Blitz 0]

We have three 4 team divisions. start the season by playing 3 division games, then play every team in the other divisions once. finish the season with 3 more division games. so 14 week regular season, where you play your divisional opponents twice, every other team once.

 

playoffs are 3 top seed from each division and a wild card. 2 week playoffs.

 

This. I've been in a number of 12 team leagues and this IMO is the best way to do it.

[sirwinzalot 1]

12 team league. Two divisions of 6 teams. Play every team in your division twice and each team in the other division once.

 

To make this work you need three double headers weeks(play two teams in the same week as separate games). Double-headers are an option in MyFantasyLeague, not sure about other sites. I made sure that double headers did not fall on NFL bye weeks.

 

Eight teams make the play-offs. Top two in each division (division winners get 1st round bye in the playoffs) and the next best 4 teams regardless of division.

 

This is my first year using double-headers. We had one in week 3 and it went well.

 

Eight teams out of twelve make the playoffs? That's retarded, that makes the season more meaningless when you let that many teams in. So basically don't be one of the four worst teams in the league for the season and still have the chance to win a championship. How bout something a little more challenging like 4 teams, Over half of a league makes the playoffs? That's awful. Bad setup.

[JT 137]

We discussed double-headers, but like most things in our league the conversation wound up going where the trains don't run. Have already talked to the commish and a few owners and they are good with the three division idea. The only change (based on past failed efforts to have the Super Bowl on Week 16, not Week 17) is that we would go with a three-week playoff involving the division winners and three wild cards. We think we have a plan.

 

I wasn't going to post this question, but I'm glad I did. The solution was right there, but none of us saw it. Too many years of doing the same thing, I guess.

 

We take the three division winners, two wild cards (best records), and the remaining high points team. Rewards the guy who scored but had unlucky matchups. Also keeps most everyone in the hunt for the playoffs until the bitter end.

[phins2119 0]

We have done this for years. Years ago week 17 got to be a problem, so we simply stopped playing on that week. We have 3 div. of 4 teams each. We play a 13 game schedule. U play every 1 in your div twice. Now You will not play one team at all during the regualr season. Six teams make the playoffs. The 6 seed playing the weakest div winner 3 seed. The 4 plays the 5 seed.The 1 and 2 seed gets byes. Hope that helps.

[chroniciguana 13]

We take the three division winners, two wild cards (best records), and the remaining high points team. Rewards the guy who scored but had unlucky matchups. Also keeps most everyone in the hunt for the playoffs until the bitter end.

 

That's exactly the plan, and for the same reasons you noted. Adding high points into the mix keeps 'em interested.

 

One of the guys came up with a unique (I think) idea for the second round of the playoffs. The top seed going into the post-season, who earns a first round playoff bye, gets to pick which surviving team he wants to play in the second round. For some reason, this idea makes my toes curl. Imagine the trash talk that will likely follow. It's like you are being called out. Priceless.

 

This is a league that resists change. But I have had six out of 12 owners - everyone I emailed - endorse the three division idea. Now all I have to do is figure out which wide receiver to start this week. The guy who dropped T.O. is daring me to start him. Guess I'm being called out.