Round-Robin Schedule: How to Make One for 4 to 10 Teams
The circle method, the game counts for any number of teams, and ready-made schedules for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 teams.
A round robin is the fairest schedule there is: every team plays every other team once. It is the default for a league season and for the pool stage of a tournament, and it is also the thing organizers most often get wrong by hand, usually by discovering in week five that two teams have now met twice and two others never will.
This guide gives you the numbers for any team count, the method to build one on paper, and ready-made schedules for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 teams you can copy straight into your league.
The numbers at a glance
With an even number of teams, everybody plays in every round. With an odd number, one team sits out each round (a bye), so you need one extra round.
Total games = n × (n − 1) ÷ 2 · Rounds = n − 1 (even n) or n (odd n)
| Teams | Rounds | Games per round | Total games | Double round robin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 5 | 5 | 2 + a bye | 10 | 20 |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 30 |
| 7 | 7 | 3 + a bye | 21 | 42 |
| 8 | 7 | 4 | 28 | 56 |
| 9 | 9 | 4 + a bye | 36 | 72 |
| 10 | 9 | 5 | 45 | 90 |
| 12 | 11 | 6 | 66 | 132 |
How to make a round-robin schedule by hand
The standard technique is the circle method. It guarantees nobody plays twice in a round and every pair meets exactly once.
- Number your teams 1 to n. If n is odd, add a pretend team called Bye: whoever draws it sits out that round.
- Write the numbers in two rows, top row left to right and bottom row right to left. For six teams:
1 2 3over6 5 4. Each column is a game: 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4. That is round 1. - Keep team 1 fixed. Rotate everyone else one place clockwise:
1 6 2over5 4 3. That is round 2: 1 v 5, 6 v 4, 2 v 3. - Repeat until you are back where you started. You will have n − 1 rounds.
- Swap home and away in alternate rounds, so team 1 is not the home team in every single game.
It works for any size, but by eight or ten teams the rotating gets fiddly and one slip breaks the whole thing. Our free round-robin schedule generator runs the same method for you: type your team names and every matchup appears, with the home and away sides already balanced.
4 team round robin schedule
Three rounds, two games each. Six games in all, or twelve as a double round robin.
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 4 | 2 v 3 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 4 v 3 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 |
5 team round robin schedule
Five rounds of two games, with one team on a bye each round. Every team gets exactly one bye, which is the price of an odd number.
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 | Bye |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 v 5 | 3 v 4 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 5 v 4 | 3 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 v 1 | 3 v 5 | 2 |
| 5 | 1 v 5 | 2 v 3 | 4 |
6 team round robin schedule
Five rounds of three games: fifteen games. This is the most common rec league size, and it fits neatly into a 10-week season played twice through (see below).
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 6 | 2 v 5 | 3 v 4 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 6 v 3 | 5 v 4 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 | 5 v 6 |
| 4 | 4 v 1 | 3 v 5 | 2 v 6 |
| 5 | 1 v 5 | 6 v 4 | 2 v 3 |
7 team round robin schedule
Seven rounds, three games each, and one bye per round.
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Bye |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 v 7 | 3 v 6 | 4 v 5 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 7 v 4 | 6 v 5 | 3 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 | 6 v 7 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 v 1 | 3 v 5 | 2 v 6 | 7 |
| 5 | 1 v 5 | 6 v 4 | 7 v 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 6 v 1 | 5 v 7 | 3 v 2 | 4 |
| 7 | 1 v 7 | 2 v 5 | 3 v 4 | 6 |
8 team round robin schedule
Seven rounds of four games, 28 games in total. If you only have two courts or diamonds, each round is two time slots.
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 8 | 2 v 7 | 3 v 6 | 4 v 5 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 8 v 3 | 7 v 4 | 6 v 5 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 | 5 v 8 | 6 v 7 |
| 4 | 4 v 1 | 3 v 5 | 2 v 6 | 8 v 7 |
| 5 | 1 v 5 | 6 v 4 | 7 v 3 | 8 v 2 |
| 6 | 6 v 1 | 5 v 7 | 4 v 8 | 3 v 2 |
| 7 | 1 v 7 | 8 v 6 | 2 v 5 | 3 v 4 |
10 team round robin schedule
Nine rounds of five games: 45 games.
| Round | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 v 10 | 2 v 9 | 3 v 8 | 4 v 7 | 5 v 6 |
| 2 | 2 v 1 | 10 v 3 | 9 v 4 | 8 v 5 | 7 v 6 |
| 3 | 1 v 3 | 4 v 2 | 5 v 10 | 6 v 9 | 7 v 8 |
| 4 | 4 v 1 | 3 v 5 | 2 v 6 | 10 v 7 | 9 v 8 |
| 5 | 1 v 5 | 6 v 4 | 7 v 3 | 8 v 2 | 9 v 10 |
| 6 | 6 v 1 | 5 v 7 | 4 v 8 | 3 v 9 | 2 v 10 |
| 7 | 1 v 7 | 8 v 6 | 9 v 5 | 10 v 4 | 2 v 3 |
| 8 | 8 v 1 | 7 v 9 | 6 v 10 | 5 v 2 | 4 v 3 |
| 9 | 1 v 9 | 10 v 8 | 2 v 7 | 3 v 6 | 4 v 5 |
Fitting a round robin into your season
The schedule above is a list of rounds, not a calendar. Matching it to the weeks you have is where most of the real decisions are:
- More weeks than rounds: play it twice through (a double round robin, home and away swapped the second time), or play once through and use the spare weeks for playoffs. Six teams play five rounds, so a double round robin is exactly ten weeks.
- Fewer weeks than rounds: play two rounds a night (a doubleheader), or accept an incomplete round robin and rank teams by winning percentage rather than raw wins, so a team with a rainout is not punished for it.
- Time slots: if one slot is worse (the 9 p.m. game, the field with no lights), rotate it through the teams rather than leaving it on whoever happens to be in that column. Check by counting each team’s late games before you publish.
- Byes: with an odd count, put the byes on weeks you already suspect will be thin, like a long weekend.
- Rainouts: leave one or two empty weeks at the end of the season for make-up games. It is much easier than shuffling the whole thing in July.
Running a round robin in one day
For a tournament day the same tables work as pools: split twelve teams into two pools of six, play each pool as a round robin, then send the top teams to a bracket. Count your courts first: a pool of six needs three courts to play a round at once, and five rounds of 40-minute games is over three hours before the bracket starts.
On the day, each court needs a way to show the score, and you will want pinnies for the inevitable two teams in the same colour.
After the schedule: the standings
Once games start, a round robin is only as good as the standings everybody can see. Decide your tiebreaker rules before the first game, not after two teams finish level.
Common questions
- How many games are in a round robin?
- n × (n − 1) ÷ 2, where n is the number of teams. Six teams play 15 games, eight teams play 28 and ten teams play 45. A double round robin doubles that.
- How do you make a 6 team league schedule?
- Use the circle method: write teams 1–3 over 6–4, play each column, then keep team 1 fixed and rotate the others one place. Five rounds of three games covers everyone once; play it twice through for a 10-week season.
- What happens with an odd number of teams?
- Add a pretend team called Bye. Whoever is paired with it sits out that round. You need n rounds instead of n − 1, and each team gets exactly one bye.
- What is a double round robin?
- Every team plays every other team twice, usually once at home and once away. It is the usual choice when a season has about twice as many weeks as a single round robin has rounds.