Although you cannot choose your conference games, you are allowed to
request that non-conference games and tournament games be put on your
schedule.
Non-Conference Games:
The number of games you are allowed to request for your schedule depends
on the sport: 30 baseball, 7 basketball, 3 football, or 14 hockey. Note that
these are just requests; you are not guaranteed to get the games.
If scheduling against other human-run teams, the opponent must also request
the game on his schedule; games requested by only one of the two teams will
not be scheduled. Despite this disclaimer, it is generally the case that
over 90% of requested games are scheduled. If a game does not get
scheduled, the program will attempt to schedule it the following season.
To request that a game be scheduled, use the "Non-conference Games" button
in your team control menu.
When scheduling non-conference games with other teams, you can request a
single game (next season only at the chosen location), a home-and-home
series (the next two seasons, beginning at the chosen location), or an
ongoing rivalry (all future seasons, beginning at the chosen location).
Single games are relatively uncommon; most games are scheduled as
home-and-home series with a few rivalries.
Baseball and hockey give options for playing the other team more than
once per season. In baseball you can request anywhere from 1 to 3 games
against your opponent. In hockey you can request 1 or 2; if two games
are scheduled they will be one at each location.
Tournaments (baseball, basketball, hockey):
A tournament is a set of games hosted by a single team. In basketball,
these are four-team tournaments, played either on game days 1 and 2 or
on days 3 and 4. All 4 teams will play 2 games, with first round
games the first day, and consolation and championship games the second.
For baseball, a tournament may have four, six, or eight teams, and will
begin either on day 20 or day 30. Hockey has 4-team tournaments, which
begin anywhere from day 35 to day 45.
The number of tournaments depends on the number of teams in the league.
At some point during the season, the commissioner will send out mail
asking for people who want to host tournaments, and interested teams
should reply. Any empty invitational tournament spots will be given out
based on league seniority and team performance. Once a team gets a
tournament, it will continue every year until the host fails to get seeds
in one year or he tells the commissioner he no longer wants it.
When you have been awarded a tournament, you should either send mail to
specific coaches, asking them to be in your tournament, or you should send
mail to the entire league, trying to find teams to fill your tournament.
If you schedule teams for your tournament without their permission, you
will lose the tournament. Once you have teams lined up and seeded, use the
"Preseason Tourney" (basketball) or "Midseason Tourney" (baseball/hockey)
button in your team control screen to have the tournament entered for the
coming season. The host team must always be the first seed, and plays the
games with home field advantage.