I operate a flag football league that's about to begin its fall season. I have a scheduling mental block that perhaps someone could assist me with.
Our league this season will comprise 14 teams, split into four divisions based on competitive classification as follows:
| A: | | B: | | C: | | D: |
| 1 | | 5 | | 8 | | 12 |
| 2 | | 6 | | 9 | | 13 |
| 3 | | 7 | | 10 | | 14 |
| 4 | | | | 11 | | |
Each team will play 10 regular season games over the course of 8 weekends...
| Wk. | Fri 1900 | Fri 2030 | --- | Sat 1000 | Sat 1130 | Sat 1300 | Sat 1430 | Sat 1600 | Sat 1730 | Sat 1900 |
| 1 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 5 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 6 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 7 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 8 | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
The mental block comes when I try to fill the above table with the matchups that our league's scheduling formula requires. We use a 'common opponent' formula similar to what the NFL used before their most recent divisional alignment in 2002. For a 14-team slate, it breaks down to this:
| 1-2 | 3-4 | 8-10 | 12-13 | 2-6 | 4-14 | 7-10 |
| 1-2 | 3-4 | 8-10 | 12-13 | 2-9 | 4-12 | 7-11 |
| 1-3 | 5-6 | 8-11 | 12-14 | 2-13 | 5-8 | 7-13 |
| 1-3 | 5-6 | 8-11 | 12-14 | 2-5 | 5-12 | 7-14 |
| 1-4 | 5-7 | 9-10 | 13-14 | 3-7 | 5-13 | 8-12 |
| 1-4 | 5-7 | 9-10 | 13-14 | 3-10 | 5-14 | 9-12 |
| 2-3 | 6-7 | 9-11 | 1-5 | 3-14 | 6-9 | 9-13 |
| 2-3 | 6-7 | 9-11 | 1-8 | 3-8 | 6-13 | 10-13 |
| 2-4 | 8-9 | 10-11 | 1-12 | 4-11 | 6-11 | 10-14 |
| 2-4 | 8-9 | 10-11 | 1-6 | 4-7 | 6-12 | 11-14 |
The mental block comes when I try to insert the above matchups into the available slots in a fashion that (1) limits teams to a maximum of 2 games per week, and (2) ensures that every team plays at least one game each week.
I've been toying with this for 4 days now and have gone through about 75 renditions (it took me nearly 30 to realize that one good idea was to have 9 games for each of the first 7 weeks, then 7 games for the final weekend), always managing to learn mid-way through that I made a fatal miscalculation, or to get through the whole thing and then realize I goofed.
Can anyone offer any assistance on this? A fresh set of eyes to look at the problem? I'm supposed to release the schedule this evening and frankly, I'm so brain-fried on it, it could be a week before I figure it out (by which time, the season will have started).
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
