I ran this past Commish and he asked me to post something here.

One of the problems some people have with SESL is the lack of something to do when knocked out the cups, especially the SESL Cup. 16 teams have nothing to do for three weeks and then there's the playoffs and the pause before the next season starts. On Wednesday another 16 teams will have two weeks of nothing to do.

One thing I like about SESL is the cup games mixed in with the league games so I wondered if it would be possible to keep this going all the way to the end of the season. Currently there are 30 league games and 21 cup games but doing a 3:2 ratio all the way would be a bit messy and I'm happy to have mostly 1 cup game on a Wednesday and 2 league games on a Saturday.

So it worked out like this.

Matches 1 and 2 - Preliminary round of Cecil Cup, Saturday then Wednesday
Matches 3 and 4 - First 2 league games (Saturday)
Match 5 - Cecil Cup, last 32 1st leg (Wednesday)
etc until
24, 25 - League
26 - Cecil Cup semi-final 2nd leg
27, 28 - League
29 - Cecil Cup final (neutral ground)

30, 31 - League
32, 33, 34, 35, 36 - SESL Cup group games - these could either be one per day starting and ending on a Wednesday or 2 Wednesday, 2 Saturday, 1 Wednesday

37, 38 - League
39 - Round of 32 (neutral ground)
etc until
49, 50 - final League games
51 - SESL Cup final

52 - Playoffs

As far as midseason aging goes, the middle game of 51 is match 26. For those that only play one round of the Cecil Cup and the 5 group games in the SESL Cup (27 games) the middle game is match 25. After the Cecil Cup final is possible but could mean 20 games before and 17 after for some teams. I'm not saying this is a problem.

Apart form the 1st Division when the season starts, everyone is guaranteed to be playing every Saturday until the end of the league season, with just the one week to wait for the SESL Cup final and the playoffs.

You won't be able to use the SESL Cup group stage to rest players for the league like I did at Deveronvale this season and this means most teams will play the SESL Cup with respect (which should please the Jags' manager) - well the middle three games anyway.

It might also mean that less 3rd Division teams are likely to qualify for the knockout stages but Commish had already thought about having the groups drawn completely randomly next season rather than 2 from each division.

As an extra I also mentioned having totally random Cecil Cup draws all the way to the final which would not be done live but everyone would get an e-mail so they could check it was done fairly.

The SESL Cup knockout stage would probably be done the same way as it is now as the randomness is in the initial groups.

That new schedule outlined above makes alot of sense actually.

Maybe a 'week off' every quarter season to catch our breath and arrange some trades though?

Proposed schedule from Steve looks good.

If Olmec software can handle the match numbering, it could be a goer.

Anyone else got opinions on how season flows?

I personally prefer having the Cup after the season. I wouldn't mind moving the games from prelims to the post-season, as well. If we are concerned about interest, let's add consolation brackets so that "losing" teams can have games to maintain interest and some parity through income from games....

I personally prefer having the Cup after the season. I wouldn't mind moving the games from prelims to the post-season, as well. If we are concerned about interest, let's add consolation brackets so that "losing" teams can have games to maintain interest and some parity through income from games....

But I thought this league didn't reward losing.

If someone posts same message twice, does that reflect just how strongly they feel on any given topic! :-)


For me, a clear set out schedule before season kick offs is perfect. I am not too fussed when games are played, but 'consolation brackets' are something I am not familiar with in real life sport, so I am guessing an American invention to maintain interest?
There seems plenty money in sesl already, so best not offer even more gate receipts to 'losers'.

I agree with what Steve proposes.

I agree because Steve has obviously put a lot of thought into this, and I believe he is the biggest asset SESL currently has, we should involve him more in the running of the game.

Well, there's a balancing act in there, Brian.

It's one thing to say that "this league doesn't reward losing," but it's quite another when the wealth of resources becomes concetrated in a few teams because only a few teams have the resources to compete.

There doesn't have to be equal income for the "consolation" games, but extra games would a) keep DQ'd managers interested and provide some level of income for those otherwise dormant teams.

Thanks for that, Mark (I think). But I don't want to be involved in the running of SESL or any other league (otherwise I'd have kept SaSo running).

I love playing here (it's probably my favourite league) and the schedule idea was only a bit of tweaking keeping the same number of games.

I've just noticed that I'm member no. 100

Member 100? These Johnny Come-Latelies think they know everything, eh!

No, I actually think the new schedule outlined above is the way to go.
Nice one Steve.