Visualizing USTA League Nationals round-robin schedules - 2026 18 & Over 4.5 men and women

The USTA has been using a random round-robin format for USTA League Nationals for awhile now, and since the format has just one flight with each team playing a random four other teams, it is always interesting to look at the schedules, who plays who, and what impact that may have on who advances to the semis.

My simulation reports take everything into account to project the chances of each team making the semis, but it is also fun to see a visualization of the schedule too.  I've done that below for the 18 & Over 4.5 men and women.

Here is the visualization for the 4.5 women.

There are no obvious pockets or groups of teams disconnected from others which is good, but a given team could still have a much tougher or weaker schedule than others.  Stay tuned for more taking a look at that aspect of the schedule.

And for the 4.5 men.

Here we see not a completely isolated, but more isolated grouping of teams.  PNW, Northern, Mid-Atlantic, Eastern, and Florida are sort of a pod, and Southern, Texas, Intermountain, Missouri Valley, and Caribbean are another.

What do you think of the schedules?  Do some teams have an obviously easier/harder path to the semis?