I have been experimenting over the last 6 seasons, on trying to influence who I will be playing against in the league the next season, with pretty positive results. As some on here have seen, I am usually friends with at least half of the teams in my league (this season it was 9 others). I will be losing half of them now, as they have failed to get promotion.
However, I have about 5 friends who are a level higher than myself, so I regularly go and watch their matches. I have noted down which of their opponents are struggling down the bottom, but are still playing regularly. I then send these managers a friend request, in the hope that I'll be placed in the same league as them next season. If that were to happen, I already know that I have a superior team to them. So far I've picked up 4 of them.