Hi

I am starting a new phase of a project for a client that involves scheduling sport events. The client now wants software to generate a master schedule of games. Previous the master schedule was created by a team of three people over a number of days. Now they would like the task done by software and they will do the final review. The following are some of the scheduling requirements:

30-40 leagues
40-50 Opponents
Prefer 2 games per week
Maximum 7 days span between games.
Balance between home and away games
Some teams must travel together to venues
Teams can indicates dates when they cannot play, or must play away or must play at home.
Each leagues has it own number of games that must be played.

There existing system is a VFP/Web-Connect application.

I am looking for scheduling algorithims or techniques that might be used in this type of situation. I want to have some understanding of ways scheduling problems can be solved before I start designing any solutions. I see it as being like design patterns. There are certain types of patterns that work in specific situations so I am looking for descriptions of approaches and techniques used in solving schduling problems.

If anyone knows where I might find such information it would be appreciated.

Thanks
Simon