Leauge Format (rule suggestion)

Another important decision to make is how the league works (e.g. open format/fixed schedule, single/multi-division)

The website is currently set up for a NFL/NHL style format with two divisions and a knock-out post season. I like this format since an open regular season gives the most flexibility and a knock-out cup in the post season is a more interesting way to decide the winner than a straight forward top-of-the-league.

The only difficulty with this is deciding who qualifies for the post season competition when teams can play a different number of matches and can play opponents a different number of times. I don't feel a vanilla average works because it is too easily influenced by a single result and one bad result can really knock your score.

My suggestion would be to have all teams submit a number a match results, say 10, at the end of the regular season and then the teams are ranked based on these matches only. I'd even adapt this and say of the 10 results submitted the best isn't counted (to discount one-off flukes) so everyone is ranked on 9 results. This works well since once you've played 10 games any further matches can only improve your ranking score. Match results could be the usual 3/1/0 pts with TD +/- deciding ties or some other simple system.

The key aims for me are to keeping coaches interested in the league for the whole season, to not restrict coaches from playing matches if they can & want to and to keep the league balanced with multiple trophies/prizes so one coach/team doesn't hog them all season after season.

Let's hear your ideas....

KForfar wrote:

The key aims for me are to keeping coaches interested in the league for the whole season, to not restrict coaches from playing matches if they can & want to and to keep the league balanced with multiple trophies/prizes so one coach/team doesn't hog them all season after season.

Let's hear your ideas....

I wonder if we could get away with a fixture list, or a play each team in your division and some of the others kind of thing?

If people want to play extra games they can play online in other leagues (with different teams).

I think I might prefer to play in a system like the NFL with a maximum number of regular season games and then on to the playoffs.

In the NFL you play each team in the same division twice (3 teams = 6 games). Each team in the other two divisions in the same conference once (2 div of 4 teams = 8 games), Plus 4 games vs the other conference. Which is 16 in total.

Obviously, we might not get 30 players we also might not want to play 16 games.

But, if we had 2 divisions of 4 teams. Each team could play each oponent in their division once, or twice, and then we have any number of cross divisional games. We could have 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4.

If we decide 8 games is a good regular season length we could say 2 games vs own division teams (6) plus 2 games vs any teams in the other division.
If we wanted just 6 games we could have 2 games vs own division and then play offs.

I reckon keep it to less than 10 games and build division rivalry.
My favorite would be the 8 games with 2 against each opponent in your own division.

If it's what everyone wants I've got no problems with set fixtures e.g play team X twice and team Y once.

I'm not so sure about going as far as a scheduled fixture list. At some point someone will get out of step and hold up other games, even if it's no one's fault.

Whatever we decide on we have to include the divison rivalry, that's going to be so cool.

KForfar wrote:

If it's what everyone wants I've got no problems with set fixtures e.g play team X twice and team Y once.

I'm not so sure about going as far as a scheduled fixture list. At some point someone will get out of step and hold up other games, even if it's no one's fault.

Whatever we decide on we have to include the divison rivalry, that's going to be so cool.

Yeah.

In chatting with a couple of people on Facebook it might be best to not restrict anything.
People will have varying amounts of time so we want to be as inclusive as possible.

If someone wants to just play a couple of games that is cool.
Even if they loose they might get the chance to kill someone important

great spelling

Incidentally all you need to know are the number of teams and the likely commitment level and I'm sure I can pull a format out of my... er... hat

I believe a modified fixed schedule with restrictions will work best. Divisions is probably going to make it easier. But basically, a fixed schedule without the actual fixed schedule aspect.

It has all been mentioned before in this thread, so I won't go into it in detail. The whole premise of playing a certain coach a certain number of times is key. If not, some coaches might get to play games against weaker coaches (ie me) and get afew more wins/money/SPP/less CAS then another coach. Also, with a slightly fixed schedule it limits some teams playing way more often and getting my stronger than other teams. I like the idea of playing every coach in your division twice, and every coach in the other division once. The flexible part would be not specifying any particular order of matches. So you can play everyone whenever is convenient.

This would also solve the problem of the playoffs, since everyone would have played the same number of games. The other part could be, if a coach cannot or chooses not to play all the games, then the coaches he did not play against could play other coaches in the same situation, or simply take the win without any of the money/SPP.

Ok, so no new ideas here for a while. If I don't hear anything soon then I'll take it upon myself to make the big decisions.

KForfar wrote:

Ok, so no new ideas here for a while. If I don't hear anything soon then I'll take it upon myself to make the big decisions.

lets see the numbers we have. it will all get clearer by the end of the month. A couple more Canadians are keen.
People will be more involved once they have their upgrades done.