So I made a significant fantasy football faux pas in the blogger league: I assumed the league’s postseason started in week 14, but in reality is starts in week 15.

Oops, my bad.

This is an example of how important it is to pay attention to all of your league’s settings. Knowing playoff rules, tiebreakers and waiver wire rules like the back of your hand can give your team a leg up on the competition. More importantly than those rules, perhaps, is to know your league’s scoring rules absolutely.

Lucky for me, this oversight did not matter too much, because I play to win each and every week. Like in week 13, where my team put a solid 91.58 points on the board.

But apparently Lady Luck — or was it karma? — has it in for The Hazean, because that point total was not enough to overcome The Fantasy Football Geek Blog’s total of 93.9. Yeah, I was that close to lucking into a chance still to make the postseason, but alas that ship now has officially sailed.

The lesson here is to check your league’s settings before the season starts and monitor important scenarios throughout the year. There are many statistical anamolies possible in a game like fantasy football, so knowing where your team stands on things like tiebreaker rules and playoff seeding is all part of being a great fantasy owner.

Looking at the standings, you can see that it still is possible for The Hazean to finish in a three-way tie for 6th place with the Fantasy Football Librarian and Fantasy Football Exchange. However, upon inspection of those oh-so-important tiebreaker rules (in this case head-to-head record), The Hazean would be the odd team out of the postseason.

The good news for the team is that I have an opportunity, albeit disappointing, to finish the season with a .500 record. A win against this weekend’s opponent, last-place Fan Prophet, would go a long way in boosting team morale heading into the consolation playoffs.