I agree...it should have a more tiered structure rather than just random. At least for the first few rounds anyway you should be playing the lower tiered teams first.
I had to play a fellow division III team (not as unlucky as you guys) but the guy was obviously inactive and played his full strength side(this will put his starters to over 120+ min a week). Now I was put in a dillemma...do I put on my best side to match him and kill my game shape for the next few weeks and screwing up my league games as well??
I think not. Its just not worth it so I ended up just tanking the game and playing a second tier team.