So, I'm learning a lot about the game. I created a new league structure, complete with a custom schedule. It was crazy to come up with the nonconference matchups.
I'm playing through it, using it to learn, and I see that on the team schedule, there are slots for preferred teams.

Does this work? How, exactly?

There is also a place to import custom schedule.

When would you do this? I assume it should be a full association schedule, not just a schedule for that team.

I was thinking I was going to be stuck with the same schedule year after year.

Also, since I am asking, in the options, there is a screen for Change Association Format that has SWAP TEAMS on it. When is that enabled? It always seems to be disabled when I look at it.

You can swap teams between end season and start new season. The swap allows you to move a single team between conferences... not sure if it will work with a custom league though since I haven't been in the code in months.

The preferred teams are set up where you can select your top 3 choices when the game does it's scheduling for non-conference games. Don't think it will apply if you're fully custom though.

Import schedule is normally where you would import a new schedule (normally between seasons again) but again, not sure if this works if it's already using your custom schedule.

Thanks for all the help. I'm getting there.