Ian,
Thank you. That is what it seemed like and probably why I was so lost, but I'm not very good at such theoretical things.
Practically for what I'm looking for I have already accepted that in many/most instances things will not be ideal. We run tournaments for anywhere from 4 to 16 co-ed teams (8 to 32 players - half of each gender). As you seem to have intuited, I would like to write a scheduling program for the various situations in that range - including the odd number of teams (we will never have an odd number of players) situation where one team get's a bye in all but one of the rounds. Priorities for this schedule would be as follows (from most important to least important):
1) Each player of one gender competes with each player of the opposite gender
2) Each player competes against each player of their own gender
3) Each player competes against each player of the opposite gender
4) Each player plays equally on each of the courts as possible (we will always have enough courts for all the teams to be playing so, for example, with 8 or 9 teams we will have 4 courts available)
Failing to write a scheduling program for this, I would like to understand the process or creating such schedules so that I can make one for each situation and have it ready.
Is there any chance you can point me somewhere I can learn how to do this?
Thank you very much for your assistance.
