An inside look at the scheduling process

Four times a year my job gets a lot busier for a week or two when all the team registrations come in and subsequently I have to create a schedule for 70-120 teams (86 teams this season). Here's an inside look at the different parts of the process.

Receive allocation of field time. Weeks or even months before a given season begins, we must estimate the number of teams we will have and request appropriate allocations from the facilities (AT&T and the Dome for indoor, Anchorage Parks & Rec and ASD in the summer). A few years ago this allocation dictated the number of teams we could accept, but now that there is more available field time, it has more to do with if we can get "good" hours.

Finalize divisions. Once team registration has closed, we look at all of the team entries to make sure divisions will be competitive. Large divisions (20+ teams) are divided into separate conferences based on past standings history. If there are not enough teams to field a division (usually five), we may combine divisions or come up with some other creative scheduling techniques. Through this entire process, it is our goal to provide the most fair, competitive divisions for all teams.

Note schedule requests. I keep track of all schedule requests and attempt to accommodate them whenever possible. At the same time, I work to keep schedules fair. For example, a request such as "only 7 p.m. games" is not likely to be accommodated, as this is something that most teams would probably appreciate. A more realistic request would be no games on Wednesdays because a lot of the team has players with classes that night.

Creating the schedule. I have been using an automated scheduling program, LeagueUSA's Sports Scheduler 2003 for the past five years or so. Although it's interface is a bit antiquated, it is still one of the best and most powerful scheduling programs on the market. It allows me to specify the maximum number of games per week, minimum number of days between games, block off dates and times for specific teams, and link teams together to prevent them from playing on different fields at the same time. Once all the settings are entered, the program schedules all games and balances different times and venues. Usually it can't quite schedule all games within the given restrictions, which requires me to manually schedule the last few games, overriding some of the restrictions.

Proofing the schedule. Once the schedule is complete, I examine each team's schedule individually to make sure there are no huge issues (i.e. a three week gap or three games in one week). I know that every team's schedule will not be perfect, but my goal is to make sure all schedules are as fair as possible.

Posting the schedule. When the schedule is complete, it is sent to our webmaster who posts it online. I sent the spring schedule in last night, so it should be online in the next day or two!

Nick Stramp
League Administrator