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 2010_Summer (SF/OAK/SJ) |
Scheduling FAQ | Up-to-date as of 9/22/2009 (2:15PM)
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WEEKLY SCHEDULINGSEASON SCHEDULING| We just signed up. How do we know if we are starting this weekend? | First, make sure you are truly signed up. Ask your captain to email the league office. Check the Rumor Mill page to see your team name and status as PAID or not. There may also be a Payment Registry page accessible from your prime bulletin board page, which may be the Bay Area Bird's Eye.
Also, refer to the Thursday FAQ below. Until there is a method to keep 100+ teams from emailing last-minute requests, we will ALWAYS and CONTINUE to inform you of your schedule (which would include whether or not you are playing this weekend) on Thursday morning. Back to top | | Where can I find my team's entire season schedule? | By week 2 or 3 when the dust settles on which teams have registered in what divisions, we will publish entire season matchups on your respective league homepage. You will find your team's weekly tipoff on your league's homepage or SCHEDULE/SCORES page.
However, specific tipoff times may not be available until 8:00AM of the Thursday preceding your Sunday game.
This is because our experience has shown that the only way to accommodate the myriad of weekly scheduling requests that come up is to proceed with the season tipoffs week by week. Remember that we purchase gym time in bulk and therefore make full use of gym capacity for all 10+ divisions combined. This helps keep costs down.
Due to your stated bye preferences or special requests made by your captain, you will know whether or not your team is playing that Sunday, you just won't know what time until as late as that preceding Thursday morning at 8:00AM. And barring unforeseen circumstances, you will know that your team's tipoff will be within your stated 6-hour time window. Remember in city leagues, you are usually carving out a 4-hour weeknight window of possible game times, so we hope a 6-hour window on weekends is not too much to ask. Back to top | | Why might it take until Thursday morning to obtain my team's tipoff time? | Here's the process that takes place:
- MONDAY. Receive a myriad of emails from captains who report that their teammates told them yesterday about special scheduling requests. Get notified by gym director(s) that we have certain time conflicts that have arisen. Attempt to schedule games with limited number of available scorekeepers. If it's the playoffs or games involve inter-conference matchups (see format below), we have to wait for the results from Sunday anyways.
- TUESDAY. Hone in on specific tipoffs and locations, juggling teams around to accommodate stated tipoff preferences, although scorekeeping staff and various gym availability might not be settled. Figure out possible combinations. Try to accommodate late requests, although sometimes it is not possible. Get some more emails from captains finding out certain players can make it at certain times within their reported tipoff timeframe. Make sure certain players who play on multiple teams don't have overlapping tipoffs -- all teams and players must check our website for tipoff timeframes and player overlaps, on their own. Tuesday midnight is the deadline to email (and email only) Sunday tipoff requests and player overlaps.
- WEDNESDAY. Finalize gym constraints, team scheduling accommodations, and scorekeeping assignments. Start to assign referees accordingly (usually one seasoned ref along with one newer ref, unless it is playoffs where we schedule only seasoned refs). Post tipoffs on the website during late night, just in case. Refs will be finalized on Thursday and Friday. Any requests made today (after the Tuesday midnight deadline) will probably be ignored, depending on how deep into the schedule we've gone already. Back to top
| | How can we make your life as the game scheduler easier? | We would appreciate your consideration if you did the following:
- Put your Dream League games as a high priority, especially with respect to the minimum 6-hour tipoff window we ask of you. Remember, your opponents will be putting a certain amount of priority on the league too, and that commitment usually gets reflected in the standings.
- Preferrably at your game on Sunday or early morning Monday by phone to those who missed the Sunday game, figure out you or your team's special preferences with respect to your regular 6-hour tipoff window, for the following week and, if you are not the captain, tell your captain ASAP. The captain should then email the league office sometime on Monday about this.
- Keep an open mind on the scheduling. Sometimes we find ourselves in Catch-22's and need your assistance to be a little more flexible here or there. Back to top
| | Why do you need at least 6 possible tipoff times from my team? | Because we have such a large league, we are able to keep costs relatively lower due to our bulk purchases. Remember, gyms are usually more expensive on weekends than weeknights.
We are also allowing as many teams that want to play -- we don't want to turn away anybody. At the same time, we want teams to have a great experience, with a decent chance at winning at championship; therefore we stratify the teams according to competitive level and geography. In doing so, we must allow for team's preferences.
With so many teams with different preferences playing in many gyms and time slots, that means we need to ask for your flexibility. Since most weeknight leagues ask you to make yourself available during a 4-hour timeframe after work, we feel that asking for a 6-hour timeframe on a Sunday is not too much to ask. Back to top | | What's the earliest and latest tipoff time you have? | | We usually try to schedule tipoffs no earlier than 9:00AM and no later than 9:00PM. Back to top | | What if my team can only play during certain times on Sundays that are less than the minimum 6 possible tipoff times? | We can try to fit you in, but then you'd be subject to two things:
- It's very difficult to schedule a team with limited tipoff timeframes. If we are successful with your special non-6-hour-timeframe request, we would appreciate it if you can return the favor by PROVIDING A SCOREKEEPER EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER YOUR GAME. We encourage the player who is causing the difficulties to step up and be that scorekeeper.
- You might not get your request fulfilled just due to logistical problems. Fulfilling requests can be especially difficult during playoffs, when teams have been eliminated and there are not as many available timeslots. Note that we have to book our gyms in blocks of time -- we cannot schedule a couple of hours in the morning, have a gap in the afternoon, then a couple of hours at night just to meet a team's specific needs. Back to top
| | I have players that play in other Sunday leagues. Is it possible to schedule around that? | | Yes, as long as the request is already part of your team's minimum 6-hour tipoff window and, if not, you've made the request through your captain and your captain to the league via email by the Tuesday midnight deadline (there is a fee required for special requests).Back to top | | What if there's a big tournament happening? Will we have to forfeit our game? | | We try to avoid forfeits due to such drastic absences as much as possible. If your team started the season early, we may be able to dance around the problem through the utilization of a bye week, because you started early; however, this is not guaranteed. Still, if a significant amount of teams will be absent due to a conflicting tourney, we may equate that particular weekend as a holiday and give all teams a bye. On the other hand, most tournaments end by Sunday afternoon, therefore we reserve the right to schedule you for late Sunday afternoon or evening. In cases where a majority of the league is not playing in the same tournament that your teammates have signed up for, and the league teams want to continue playing, then your team will have to ask permission from your opponent to reschedule the game or else there may be nothing we can do to reschedule the game. We take each conflict situation on a case-by-case basis. Back to top | | Why would I want to start on the first launch week (out of three launch weeks) when some teams are going to start on second or third launch weeks? | | If you start on one of the soft-launch dates, you might get a bye week to play around with later in the season. You never know, this could come in handy at some point. Back to top | | What happens if you are trying to schedule two teams that have totally different tipoff time requests, or when you have gym constraints that cannot avoid a conflict? | Location and time parameters can change based on gym constraints out of the control of the league. If and when parameters change, teams will be notified of updated parameters, give notice as to availability of adhering to updated parameters, and bear responsibility of adhering to agreed upon new parameters.
The league will act as arbitrator if and when two teams with different parameters cannot mutually come up with a solution. The league will then schedule the game according to the best interests of the league, not necessarily the teams involved.
Teams that cannot abide by this scheduling agreement bear the responsibility of forfeiting their game. The above ensures two important things:- continued parity in our various divisions, and
- continued savings on costs for purchasing gym time in bulk. Back to top
| | How many byes do we get? | | As of 2009, we have removed our burden of scheduling byes. Therefore, teams should expect to play each and every week, excluding the stated holidays or league-wide byes on the Signup Page. If your team starts on one of the "soft-launch" dates, that may help facilitate the possibility of creating a bye week during a weekend of your choosing after the "hard-launch" date. Creating byes merely entails juggling the season schedule of matchups around, therefore please remember that any schedule juggling will always involve two teams. And when a bye is created and there is no more room to juggle, your team may be forced to catch up with a double-header. Back to top | | Which major holidays will be league-wide byes? | The entire week-by-week schedule for the 2009-10 Fall-Winter season in the Bay Area is as follows...
- 10/11 - Soft-launch date.
- 10/18 - Soft-launch date.
- 10/25 - Hard launch. All teams must start by this date.
- 11/1 - Normal game day. Roughly the 2nd of 7 regular season games played.
- 11/8 - Normal game day. Roughly the 3rd of 7 regular season games played.
- 11/15 - Normal game day. Roughly the 4th of 7 regular season games played.
- 11/22 - Normal game day. Roughly the 5th of 7 regular season games played.
- 11/29 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no games).
- 12/6 - Possibly a conflict with Dream League's annual Gold Rush tournament. TBD.
- 12/13 - Normal game day. Roughly the 6th of 7 regular season games played.
- 12/20 - Normal game day. Roughly the 7th of 7 regular season games played.
- 12/27 - XMAS/NEW YEARS HOLIDAY (no games).
- 1/3 - Normal game day. Roughly the 1st week of 4 or 5 playoff weeks.
- 1/10 - Normal game day. Roughly the 2nd week of 4 or 5 playoff weeks.
- 1/17 - MARTIN LUTHER KING WEEKEND. Maybe we will have games. TBD.
- 1/24 - Normal game day. Roughly the 3rd or 4th week of 4 or 5 playoff weeks.
- 1/31 - Normal game day. Playoffs should be ending very soon.
- 2/7 - SUPERBOWL SUNDAY. A few last remaining playoff games in the morning.
- 2/14 - DREAM LEAGUE'S ANNUAL ALL-STAR WEEKEND TOURNAMENT IN DALLAS, TX. More info later.
- 2/21 - Soft-launch of Bay Area's 2010 Winter-Spring season...
As you can for Xmas 2009, we manage to avoid hitting Xmas or New Years on a Sunday or even nearby, so we will march onward as we've only earmarked 12/27 as an official day off. Back to top | | When will the season end? | | As mentioned above with the holidays, we expect to end the season by no later than Superbowl Sunday 2010, which is 2/7/2010. The following 2010 Winter-Spring season should soft launch on 2/21/2010. Back to top | | What is the format of the season? | Up until the end of the 2009 Summer-Fall season, we have always endeavored to have an 8-game regular season. Sometimes a shortage of teams in any given division, such as a 6-team division, would result in a 7-game regular season instead of 8, but we always granted double-elimination status to all 6 teams in those cases. Starting the 2009-10 Fall-Winter season, we will change to a 7-game regular season.
The primary reason for doing this is that, in short, we feel under-appreciated. While some teams remained low-maintenance and continued to display exemplary sportsmanship, a growing minority of teams became high-maintenance or otherwise were rampant with a variety of major issues such as non-payment of roster slots (a system which, in parallel, has been abandoned this season), unsportsmanlike conduct, and other conduct overlapping into law enforcement issues. We have therefore decided to make a market correction. We can also justify the switch to a 7-game regular season because the teams that tend to come back season after season, tend of last longer in the playoffs, which can result in a 14- or 15-game seasons. This change will shed that to a 13- or 14-game season, which we think will not diminish in uniqueness when compared to other city leagues. Further, PacRim in LA also shortened their regular season to 7 games. Finally, a 7-game regular season in which the difference between a 4-3 double-elimination status and 3-4 single-elimination status will ensure that more teams put Dream League as a priority during the regular season, leading to fewer forfeits and players who take their Dream League experience for granted in comparison to other available leagues on Sundays.
Will we ever go back to the 8-game regular season? Perhaps. You can blame the behavior of dreamleaguers in 2009 on the recession, but the fact remains: we are responding to what we see as problems.
Now that we have established a 7-game regular season for the remainder of 2009, let's turn our attention to the format. First, let us agree that there are good teams all over the Bay Area, but the better the teams, the harder they are to find.
In the interests of promoting parity and the best competitive experience available, we have historically split divisions into two or more locations, thereby placing more importance on parity than on location, nevertheless the three locations are only about 30 minutes apart.
We generally have 8-team divisions consisting mostly of teams that have played in Dream League before. With 8 teams, you can probably expect to have two conferences based on geography, with 4 teams each. Best of all, mathematically, you have a one-in-eight chance of winning a championship.
The regular season would be scheduled something like this:
- The first 5 games are against teams in your conference.
- The 5th and/or 6th games could be an intra-conference repeat. Teams from the same location will either demonstrate they should carry a high seed into the playoffs by beating the same intra-conference team twice, or get a chance at revenge against the intra-conference team they lost to earlier.
- The 6th and 7th games are inter-conference based on standings, which means top teams play against top teams in opposite conferences, all the way down to cellar dwellers. You will not find this feature in any other league in the world; not even Dream League New York does this. This promotes parity and increases the odds of really close games to close out the regular season. This means you should get 6 home games and 1 away game.
- The order of Games 1 thru 7 could be mixed due to various anomalies (such as a bye request facilitated by an early soft-launch date) and what not. The important thing is that we get that structure of 7 games done in one sequence or another.
- For the quasi-double-elimination playoffs, we determine the seeding based on tried-and-true NFL tiebreakers. We mix up the low/high seed pairings by inter-conference, to avoid repeat matchups from the regular season. This means you will have probably played 6 different opponents out of the possible 7, using the 8-team division as an example.
- Also for the playoffs, we used to have the Winners Bracket team and higher-seeded team getting the homecourt advantage. However, as of Fall/Winter 2007-08, we changed it to balance out the geographical preferences. In other words, even if you are a low seed, we will try to even it out so that you end up with as many home games as your fellow teams in other geographies within that same division, just to make the whole issue of commuting as fair as possible. We will also try to include bridge tolls in our commute formulas as well.
We believe this is the closest format attainable somewhat similar to the NFL's regular season and the NBA's best-of-seven homecourt advantage playoff system. Our goal is to create 8-team leagues in which it appears any of the 8 teams have a bonafide chance to win the championship, like the NBA's conference semifinals. You will not find our format in any other basketball league out there.
Check the Rumor Mill for a full breakdown of this season's stratifications. Back to top |
| Why are you different than other leagues in featuring "away" games? | Remember, we are favoring competitiveness slightly over geography. In other words, this is a league where we sacrifice a handful of games in your home gym for what hopefully amounts to tight, high-intensity, nailbiter playoff games away from home. Of course, if you're a good team with a high seed, you won't be sacrificing hardly any home court.
We believe our recent playoffs was a strong indication that our approach is working. On May 21, 2006 in Championship-related games only, we witnessed the most exciting day of playoffs in Dream League history:
- The average margin of victory of the 7 championship-related games played was only 5.9 points.
- 4 of the 7 games were decided by 6 or fewer points.
- 3 of the 4 games decided by 6 or fewer points were decided by exactly 2 points.
- Losing teams of the widest margins of victories (11 and 10 pts) had key players injured and unavailable.
- 2 of the games were decided in triple-overtime (sudden death).
- The 2 triple-overtime games (involving different divisions) were back-to-back!!
Have you ever seen a league have back-to-back triple overtime games?
And you thought the NBA Playoffs were exciting?!! Back to top |
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