Here is my Suggestion, which will certainly be nominated for the “Suggestion of the Season Award”. (I’ll let somebody else suggest that this award be created.) This suggestion is inspired by the part of my regular beginning of the season routine when I check my schedule to map out strategy, see if I have an easy opening Cup game, and to see if I’ll have a chance at winning my TV games. (Last season I finished in 6th, and my TV games this season are against 1.) my Rival on the road, last season’s 5th place finisher, 2.) a home game against last season’s 2nd place finisher in the other conference, and 3.) at home against last season’s 3rd place finisher in my conference. Not mission impossible, but I’ll be lucky to win any of those games. Other seasons I’ve had easier TV games, and when I was the dominant team in lower leagues I often felt bad for sometimes drawing the bottom-dwellers in those TV games and giving those teams no hope of winning them.)
Problem (in my opinion):
TV schedules are created randomly, often giving the best teams an unfair advantage in their ability to win those games and giving lesser teams an unfair disadvantage at the same time. Furthermore, this deviates a good deal from reality. When real TV games are selected, they are chosen for their ability to attract a viewing audience. If viewers are forced to watch lesser teams play, they at least don’t want to watch them get blown out (by the 4th quarter, who cares if a team loses by 20 points or 25 point?).
A Solution (feel free to improve on this, I want to see the best possible solution implemented for the sake of the game):
Unlike Cup games, there’s no compelling reason to schedule TV games randomly (Cup schedule discussions are numerous in other threads and not to be discussed here). Just like the Draft seeks to help the lesser teams a little, there’s no reason to hurt the lesser teams with difficult TV games, especially since their ticket incomes are already lower than the top teams’, and giving these teams a winnable TV game or two will help them take in a little more cash. (This also would help these TV networks who televise the games draw a bigger TV audience, helping the reality angle of TV games…) Therefore, I propose a solution for fixing each season’s TV schedule based on the previous season’s standings.
I offer below a suggestion for how to set conference TV games, and two possible options for how to set the interconference TV schedule. For leagues other than the top leagues of each country, assume that the team that relegated into the league replaces the previous season’s champion in the schedule. Also, except in bottom level leagues, 7th and 8th place (both teams that promoted from the previous season) could either be assigned the 7th/8th position spots randomly, or perhaps there’s a way to assign them based on objective criteria (such as their previous league’s average roster salary total at the previous season’s All Star game). The schedule for each team (and the opponents) refers to where each team finished in their conference the previous season.
Conference TV games:
1st place – home (h) vs. 2nd place (2), away (a) vs. 3
2nd place – (h) vs. 3, (a) vs. 1
3rd place – (h) vs. 1, (a) vs. 2
4th place – (h) vs. 6, (a) vs. 5
5th place – (h) vs. 4, (a) vs. 7
6th place – (h) vs. 8, (a) vs. 4
7th place – (h) vs. 5, (a) vs. 8
8th place – (h) vs. 7, (a) vs. 6
Interconference TV game Option 1 (random home/away games):
1st place – (h) or (a) vs. 1 (i.e. home/away random)
2nd place – (h) or (a) vs. 2
3rd place – (h) or (a) vs. 3
4th place – (h) or (a) vs. 4
5th place – (h) or (a) vs. 5
6th place – (h) or (a) vs. 6
7th place – (h) or (a) vs. 7
8th place – (h) or (a) vs. 8
Interconference TV game Option 2 (competitive fixed games)
1st place – (a) vs. 3
2nd place – (a) vs. 4
3rd place – (h) vs. 1
4th place – (h) vs. 2
5th place – (a) vs. 7
6th place – (a) vs. 8
7th place – (h) vs. 5
8th place – (
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