GAC Division difference

I was the “big fish” in div 3 during the GAC exhibition with my overall GP on the cusp of promotion to Division 2. I enjoyed the slight advantage this afforded me as I was able to put down a relatively strong defence and maintain enough teams to make an impact on offence. Since then I’ve moved up to Division 2 and now find myself the “small fish” struggling to put 16 effective teams together.
I’m guessing most players are sacrificing a little on D to make sure they have enough to clear a board on on O?
Time to revisit my strategy