Managing our divisions and shared fields was a year-round headache. SchedulOpt® built our entire season, playoffs included, in less time than it takes to play a single match.
— League President Commissioner
Use Case
A regional high school league needed to schedule a season for 16 basketball teams from different districts ensuring each team played Home and Away games, while minimising travel and respecting academic calendars.
The Challenges
- Long-distance travel between districts
- School holidays and no-play periods
- Uneven distribution of Home/Away and weekday/weekend games
- Risk of overloading teams with 3+ games a week
The SchedulOpt® Solution
SchedulOpt®’s generated a clean, fair fixture using automation rules tailored to high school leagues, reducing manual scheduling hours and boosting fairness.
Step 1 - Team Setup with LocationsThe 12 Ivy League schools were entered into the system. The location of their venues was included to enable distance minimisation across the schedule.
- Enter all 16 teams into the Teams section
- Use Add Location to specify each team's home venue
- This enabled accurate travel calculation for regional scheduling
Step 2 - Date Configuration- Games scheduled every Wednesday and Satuday
- School holidays and exam weeks marked as Blackout Dates
Step 3 - Tournament ConfigurationIn the Tournament module:
- Type: Games per Team
- Number of games each team plays: 18
Step 4 - Rules ConfigurationTravel Optimisation
- Used Weekday-Specific Game Selection: Long-distance games allowed only on Saturdays
- Applied Travel Distance Minimisation
Weekday vs. Weekend Fairness
- Enabled Home-Away Balance
- Configured to ensure teams weren't always Away on weekends
Overload Protection & Rest Management
- Prevented teams from having long consecutive runs of Home or Away games
- Capped game requency: No more than 2 games per team per week
The Outcome
- Fair, balanced schedule created in minutes
- Travel time cut by 30% across seasons
- No games scheduled during holidays or exams
- Every team had a healthy mix of weekday/weekend and Home/Away games
