Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andreas Raht
But Carplos is right, it's possible to make the schedules better, and we're working on that.
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I'm sure if yourself, gmo, and myself were to have some discussions on the theory involved and toss around some idea concepts, I'm sure we could come up with some things to try to make things better.
I meant my comment more in the sense that there likely won't be any quick or dramatic improvements, but more of a slow, gradual process.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Carplos
The problem is it's giving something like 8/0, or even 12/0. 7/5, 5/3, or whatever would be fine.
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To bolster my hypothesis that you can find a real-world schedule just about as strange as any game-generated one, I offer the 2005 Southern League schedule:
Code:
CAR CNG HVL TEN WTN BIR JCK MSS MOB MTG
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CAR -- 37 14 20 17 10 20 8 7 7
CNG 37 -- 18 17 17 17 10 14 6 4
HVL 14 18 -- 21 16 11 10 21 23 6
TEN 20 17 21 -- 20 18 6 7 10 21
WTN 17 17 16 20 -- 13 8 22 18 9
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BIR 10 17 11 18 13 -- 23 13 15 20
JCK 20 10 10 6 8 23 -- 15 22 26
MSS 8 14 21 7 22 13 15 -- 16 24
MOB 7 6 23 10 18 15 22 16 -- 23
MTG 7 4 6 21 9 20 26 24 23 --
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Tot 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140
Div 88 89 69 78 70 71 86 68 76 93
Int 52 51 71 62 70 69 54 72 64 47
Two 5-team divisions and yet the matchups make no sense at all. Two teams (Carolina and Chattanooga) are playing over
one-quarter of their season against each other; Huntsville plays 21 and 23 games against teams in the other division while playing just 14 against division rival Carolina.
It gets worse when the home-away splits are factored in:
Code:
CAR CNG HVL TEN WTN BIR JCK MSS MOB MTG
H A H A H A H A H A H A H A H A H A H A
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CAR - - 19 18 6 8 11 9 6 11 3 7 14 6 4 4 3 4 4 3
CNG 18 19 - - 11 7 10 7 8 9 4 13 6 4 6 8 3 3 4 0
HVL 8 6 7 11 - - 9 12 10 6 7 4 3 7 11 10 12 11 3 3
TEN 9 11 7 10 12 9 - - 8 12 7 11 3 3 3 4 7 3 14 7
WTN 11 6 9 8 6 10 12 8 - - 9 4 4 4 12 10 4 14 3 6
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BIR 7 3 13 4 4 7 11 7 4 9 - - 12 11 6 7 7 8 6 14
JCK 6 14 4 6 7 3 3 3 4 4 11 12 - - 6 9 15 7 14 12
MSS 4 4 8 6 10 11 4 3 10 12 7 6 9 6 - - 6 10 12 12
MOB 4 3 3 3 11 12 3 7 14 4 8 7 7 15 10 6 - - 10 13
MTG 3 4 0 4 3 3 7 14 6 3 14 6 12 14 12 12 13 10 - -
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70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70 70
140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140 140
Carolina plays Jacksonville 20 times with a home-away split of 6-14; Chattanooga plays Birmingham 17 times with a home-away split of 13-4; Tennessee plays Montgomery 21 times with a home-away split of 7-14; West Tenn plays Mobile 18 times with a home-away split of 14-4. There are other examples of totally off-the-wall splits as well.
And yet this was the actual schedule used by the Souther League in 2005. (My theory on its creation assumes the schedulemaker drew teams and numbers of matchups randomly out of a hat, because I sure can't seen any rational pattern to it.)
So, while perhaps truth is not stranger than fiction, it sure can come close...