A bye means a team has no game that week. TeamSideline adds byes for you whenever a division's schedule leaves a team without a game, most often because the division has an odd number of teams. With an odd number of teams playing 1 game a week (or Double Header/Different Team), the division's 3 Time Slots page lets you choose Schedule Byes (one team sits out each week) or All Teams Play Every Week (no byes; a team plays twice instead).
Applies to: Admins and schedulers · All plans · League divisions (not Single Games or Cross Division divisions)
Where: Schedules > Leagues & Divisions > (division) > 3 Time Slots > Odd Team Division Configuration
Choose byes or all teams play
- Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions and open the division's 3 Time Slots page.
- Under Odd Team Division Configuration, choose For Schedule: Schedule Byes or All Teams Play Every Week. The choice saves right away, and you'll see "Division configuration updated."
- Add at least as many time slots as your choice needs (see the table below). The page shows the minimum for your division.
- Go to 4 Create Schedule, click Create, check the weeks and byes, and click Calc & Save.
The setting is used when you click Create. Changing it later doesn't change a schedule that already exists: delete the schedule and create it again (Delete is available until a game is Played).
What each choice does
| Games per Week/Team | For Schedule | Each week | Time slots needed (9 teams) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schedule Byes | One team has a bye. | Half the teams, rounded down (4) |
| 1 | All Teams Play Every Week | Every team plays, and one team plays twice (a double header). | Half the teams, rounded up (5) |
| 2, Double Header/Different Team | All Teams Play Every Week, with one time slot per team | Every team plays 2 games. | As many as teams (9) |
| 2, Double Header/Different Team | All Teams Play Every Week, with one time slot fewer than teams | Two teams play only 1 game; the rest play 2. | One fewer than teams (8) |
| 2, Double Header/Different Team | Schedule Byes, with one time slot fewer than teams | One team has a bye; the rest play 2. | One fewer than teams (8) |
The page says the same in its own words. With 1 game per week: "Select “Schedule Byes” if you want the schedule to be created with a Bye for one team every week. Select “All Teams Play Every Week” if you want all teams to play every week, which means each week one team will have a double header." For a double header schedule, the time slot message asks for one time slot per team whichever choice you make, but Create appears from one fewer.
Odd Team Division Configuration doesn't appear when the division has an even number of teams, plays 2 games per week on Different Days or as Double Header/Same Team (with Double Header/Same Team, one team has a bye each week), uses Custom games per week, doesn't have the Regular schedule checked on 1 Configuration, or is a Single Games or Cross Division division.
When TeamSideline adds or removes byes
- When you click Create, and each time 4 Create Schedule recalculates, every team with no game in a week gets a bye for that week. The page lists them: "Bye - Week [week] | This week has one or more Teams not playing. We have added Byes to list the Team(s) as not playing. (You can leave as is or change it.)"
- No byes are added in a week blocked with Block A Week, and byes already in a blocked week are removed.
- If a team with a bye gets a game that week, the bye is removed: "Week [week]: [team] had a Bye removed because they are scheduled to play this week."
- If the last week of the schedule has only byes, they're removed ("Bye Removal").
- Byes are added only while the division's Show Byes is Yes, and not to a schedule built with Manual: add those byes yourself.
- Byes never count in the standings.
Add a bye yourself
- On the division's 4 Create Schedule page, use the default view. (If you see Time and Location columns, click Toggle View; byes can't be edited in that view.)
- Click Add Game.
- Choose the Week, set Time Slot to N/A, set Away to Bye, and choose the team that has the bye as Home.
- Click Add, then Calc & Save.
If the team still has a game that week, move or delete that game, or the bye is removed again when the page recalculates.
More than one bye a week, or one extra game instead of a bye
- Two or more byes a week (for example, 10 teams but only 4 fields): use the extra time slot method. Add time slots on 3 Time Slots until you reach the minimum, then click the extra time slot's green circles in the Time Slot Schedule so they turn white. A white circle means no game is scheduled there, so each week the teams that don't fit get byes. The schedule runs more weeks so every team still gets its games. See Why can't I create my schedule? Time slot and team requirements for the Create button.
- Byes are spread across the season as TeamSideline balances opponents, so some teams can end up with one more bye than others. Check each team's byes on 4 Create Schedule before you click Calc & Save, and move games by hand if you need to.
- One team plays twice in a week instead of having a bye: keep 1 game per week, then add the extra game for that week with Add Game on 4 Create Schedule. The team's bye that week is removed automatically. To do this every week, choose All Teams Play Every Week instead.
Hide byes
On the division's 1 Configuration > Display page, set Show Byes to No ("Select "Yes" to show Byes on Schedule."). Byes then don't show on the division's schedule, and new ones aren't added. Show Byes in Schedules > Configurations > Sport Defaults sets it for new divisions of that sport.
If it doesn't work
- "To make a Bye for a team select Time Slot as "N/A", select Away Team as "Bye", and use the Home Team to indicate the team that has the Bye." On Add Game you set only one of Time Slot N/A and Away Bye. Set both.
- A red Time Slot Not Selected alert on a bye ("...For this week, you have not selected "N/A" for the Time Slot." or "...you have not selected "Bye" for the Away team."). In the default view, set the bye's Time Slot to N/A and Away to Bye, then Calc & Save.
- There's no Odd Team Division Configuration on 3 Time Slots. The division has an even number of teams, or is one of the cases listed under What each choice does. Add all your teams on 2 Teams first, since the team count decides it.
- There's no Create button. The division has fewer time slots than its choice needs. See Why can't I create my schedule? Time slot and team requirements for the Create button.
- You changed For Schedule but the schedule didn't change. The choice applies only when you click Create. Delete the schedule on 4 Create Schedule and create it again.
Good to know
- With All Teams Play Every Week, 4 Create Schedule doesn't flag the team that plays twice in a week with a Games Per Week warning.
- Each blocked week pushes the schedule out by a week. See How to block a week in a schedule.