Creating the Schedule

One of the most overlooked tasks for a fantasy football commissioner is devising a simple way to
create a fair schedule. The schedule has a profound influence on how a team will perform in the season. As team owners look anxiously over their schedule, they check for those tough weeks and for those big breaks that come throughout the season. What will you do when both your #1 QB and your #1 WR face the Seattle Seahawks defense in the disruptive CenturyLink Field? Could you, in fact, luck out and face the team that has Adrian Peterson and RG3 when they're both on their bye weeks? Lots of things can happen, and it's all dictated by the schedule.

There are three ways to create a fantasy league schedule:

1. leave it based on the order in which team owners joined the league (default)
2. the commissioner manually creates the schedule week to week
3. the commissioner randomizes the schedule

Although the default method of allowing the schedule to be based on when team owners joined is basically random, and it requires no action from the commissioner, there is no way for the rest of the league to know that. In fact, the case may be that the commissioner could have invited owners and had them sign up in an order that's fortuitous for their team by cherry picking who they'd rather face more often. Also, leaving the schedule based on sign ups just doesn't feel right. It's generic.

Having the commissioner manually create a schedule week to week is the most troublesome. Making decisions on who should play who, how often, and when is too difficult and too time consuming for commissioners. And if your commissioner sets the schedule manually after the draft, you should be very suspicious, as all the information they need to rig the schedule their way is there for them to manipulate.

This leaves randomizing the schedule as the optimal choice for commissioners. A random schedule is fair, and it's easy for the commissioner to manage. There are at least three important things for the commissioner to do when randomizing the schedule for their league:

1. randomize and set the schedule before the draft, this virtually rules-out the idea that the commissioner could have rigged the schedule
2. click the 'Randomize Schedule' link only once, clicking it multiple times suggests some level of manipulation from the commissioner, and it's unnecessary
3. have a team owner present as a witness, or document the randomizing of the schedule with a Screencast-O-Matic video

I have followed-through on all points of my scheduling creed. You may view the randomizing of the Greed is Good FFL schedule here on YouTube.