Access Required: This feature is available with Pricing Tier of Elite or higher. If you're interested in upgrading your account to access this feature, please contact support@teamsideline.com and our team can help.
Smart Auto Assign proposes rosters for the divisions you choose. You set it up, run it, and check the proposal. Then you commit it or reset it. Your live rosters don't change until you click Commit Assignments.
Before you start
- Smart Auto Assign must be on for your organization. If you see a Smart Auto Assign tab on the Assign To Roster page, it's on. If not, contact support@teamsideline.com.
- It works for Youth, Adult, and Youth & Adult registration programs. Team Registration programs use the Assign Teams page instead.
- Create your divisions. Add teams too, or let Smart Auto Assign create them for you.
- Archive published team sites. Smart Auto Assign can't run while any team site in the program is published. You can republish after you commit. See Roster assignment and published team sites.
- Leave out divisions with locked rosters. Smart Auto Assign doesn't check roster locks. It can add players to a locked roster, and Replace can take players off one.
- Check player information. Players need a birth date, gender, and grade on their accounts. Missing information can't be balanced.
- Adult programs get even team sizes only. Adult enrollees have no age, gender, or grade on file, so criteria don't change where they go.
Step 1: Open the Smart Auto Assign tab
- Go to Programs > Manage Programs and open the program.
- Click the 4 Rosters tab, then click Assign To Roster.
- Click the Smart Auto Assign tab.
The first time you open it, nothing is set up and Run AI Assignment is grayed out. Your settings on this tab are saved for each program, for you only. Other admins see their own settings, but they share the same proposal. If a colleague already set up the program, you'll need to set it up again under your own login.
[Screenshot: Smart Auto Assign tab showing Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3]
Step 2: Configure each division
Step 1: Configure Divisions on the tab says which divisions to fill and how.
- Under Step 1: Configure Divisions, click Configure a Division.
- Fill in every field. All are required.
- Click Add.
- Repeat for each division you want to fill.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Division | The division to fill. Each division can be set up once. |
| Offerings | The offerings whose enrollees go to this division. Each offering can be in only one division's setup. |
| Roster Min/Max | The number of players per team. Teams never go over the maximum. The maximum must be higher than the minimum. |
| Enrollee types | Who to place. Player is youth players, General is adult players, and Volunteer is coaches, assistant coaches, team parents, and managers. |
| Keep families together | Yes puts enrollees from the same account, in the same division, on the same team. |
| Create missing teams | Yes adds teams when there aren't enough to hold everyone at the roster maximum. |
| Existing roster assignments | Keep leaves people already on a team where they are. Replace clears the division's rosters and places everyone again when you commit. |
[Screenshot: Configure a Division form]
To change a setup, click the Edit icon on its row. To remove one, click the Delete icon. If a criterion uses the division, change or remove the criterion first.
More about each setting
- Roster Min. Smart Auto Assign uses the minimum only to warn you when a division has more teams than it can fill. It doesn't hold back players to reach it.
- Volunteers don't count toward roster size. Smart Auto Assign spreads them evenly across teams by role, and never puts the same volunteer on a team twice.
- Use the same enrollee types in every division. Smart Auto Assign currently combines the types from all your divisions. If one division includes Volunteer, volunteers can be placed in all of them.
- Keep families together. Each family goes on one team with room for all of them. If no team has room, the whole family stays unassigned. A parent who volunteers goes on their child's team. See How to keep families together on rosters.
- Create missing teams. New teams are named Team 1, Team 2, and so on, skipping names already in use. They're added to the division when you commit. This setting is grayed out when Volunteer is the only enrollee type, because volunteers don't use roster spots.
- Replace includes coaches. Replace clears every player and volunteer already on the division's teams, even if you didn't choose Volunteer. It then places them again.
Step 3: Add criteria
Step 2: Select Criteria and Set Priority on the tab says how to balance the teams. Criteria are optional. Without them, Smart Auto Assign only evens out team sizes.
- Under Step 2: Select Criteria and Set Priority, click Add Criteria.
- Choose a Criteria type: Age as of, Gender, or Grade.
- Choose the divisions it applies to and its Priority: Critical, High, Medium, or Low.
- Click Add.
Each criteria type can be used once, for as many divisions as you like.
| Criteria | What it balances | Where the information comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Age as of | Average age on each team | The player's birth date, counted on the offering's Age As Of Date. If the offering has none, the date of the run |
| Gender | The mix of boys and girls on each team | The gender on the player's account |
| Grade | Average grade on each team | The grade on the player's account. Pre-K and kindergarten count as below first grade |
When two criteria pull in different directions, the higher priority wins. Smart Auto Assign never goes over the Roster Max, and it keeps team sizes as even as it can.
What Smart Auto Assign doesn't use
It doesn't read special requests, comments, enrollment fields, or custom fields. It can't honor friend, coach, or school requests, or player evaluations. Place those players with Drag & drop after you commit.
Step 4: Run it
- Under Step 3: Automate Roster Assignment, click Run AI Assignment.
- If a warning appears, read it and close it. Then click Run Anyway to go ahead, or Cancel to change your setup.
- Wait for the run to finish.
You may see these warnings:
| Warning says | What to do |
|---|---|
| A division doesn't have enough teams at the roster maximum | Add teams, or set Create missing teams to Yes |
| A division has more teams than its enrollees can fill at the roster minimum | Remove teams, or lower the Roster Min. Some teams will finish below it |
| A division has no criteria | Add criteria, or go ahead. Teams are filled to even sizes only |
| A division is set to REPLACE existing roster assignments | Go ahead only if you want its current rosters cleared when you commit |
The run works in the background and usually starts within a minute. The page refreshes every 10 seconds, and your setup is locked until the run ends. You can leave the page, but no email is sent when it's done. To stop a run, click Cancel AI Assignment.
Step 5: Review, then commit or reset
When the run ends, a message says how many enrollees were proposed for teams and how many were left unassigned. The proposed rosters appear in Step 3:
- Proposed enrollees have (proposed) after their name.
- New teams appear as Team 1 (Proposed), Team 2 (Proposed), and so on.
- Each team shows its counts and averages, like "(Staff: 1, Players: 12, Avg Age: 9.4, M: 6, F: 6)."
Then choose one:
- Commit Assignments saves the proposal to your rosters.
- Reset Assignments throws the proposal away. Your rosters stay as they were.
Neither button asks you to confirm, and you can't undo a commit. Until you commit or reset, your setup stays locked and you can't run again. For details, see How to review, commit, or reset a Smart Auto Assign proposal.
[Screenshot: Step 3 with proposed enrollees and the Commit Assignments and Reset Assignments buttons]
If the page unlocks with no message
The run found nothing to place, or it didn't finish. Check that the division has unassigned enrollees and at least one team, then run again. If it keeps happening, contact support@teamsideline.com.
Tips
- Try one division first to see how it works.
- Your setup is locked while a run is in progress or a proposal is waiting. Commit or reset the proposal to change it.