Yep, solitaire has it's own set of "give and takes" that requires some planning. There's the "do I make my games short so I can get more games in or long so that they are more 'life-like' decision" and the "do I play a short schedule with a lot of teams so I can get the season done quickly or a longer season with less teams so that the standings reflect which teams are truely better"?
My experience from my last season are this:
I liked the longer games (20 plays per quarter) because it gave both teams plenty of time to move the ball and gave each game the feeling of it being a
real game. I think it also helped avoid tie games because there were more possesions by each team. Sometimes a team will start out slow and then catch fire. A short game would be doom for such a team, whereas in a longer game they can come from behind and pull it out, which makes it exciting to watch. The down side was that they take about 3 hours to play. I was able to get one game in during the week, playing 1 quarter each night and one game in on the weekends. As such, my 10 'week' season really took about 25 weeks to play, including the playoffs.
With 8 teams, I played a 10 week schedule. It was nice in that it was long enough for the teams to really sort themselves out as to who were the better teams and who weren't. The drawback was that around the 7 'week' mark I was getting antsy to just get the season over with so I could have the playoffs.
I left ties as that, I only had one during the season out of 40 games.
Anyone who wants to start a solitaire season should really sit down and think about whether or not they have the stamina to finish it. 16 teams and 11 game season is 88 games plus the 3 playoff games making it 91. Whew, that's a lot of games no matter how you look at it.
I've noticed several guys posting here that they have started their seasons, some several months ago, but very few posting that their seasons have finished. It can start out great, but as the games mount up it can change from being fun to being a chore. Try to find the best compromise between having a game that is too short or too long, and the same with the length of your season. Again, it's just my
Best of luck with your season, and be sure to post results as you go along.
Oh..., and go LA Rams
