Empire Selection Algorithm Question

I have been noticing that the empires that the game selects for AI opponents tend to lean heavily toward the top of the list (lowest in alphabetical order). That means that in almost all of the games I play I end up seeing the Breen, Conflux, Cardassian and so on. It is rare for empires from lower down on the list, such as the Xoronn, XiChung, Tholian, etc. to ever show up. I am playing the Balance Mod. My question is does the game make any attempt to randomize the empires it selects? It doesn't appear so, and in this case what can be done to see some of these other empires (other than to delete the ones that seem to show up all the time)?