By Bob Condotta

The Seattle Times

Among the many things the Seahawks did Sunday was ensure that they will kick off next Sunday with a playoff spot on the line.

Well, actually the NFL helped ensure that by moving the kickoff of the Carolina-Atlanta game back to 1:25 p.m. Seattle time.

To repeat the Seahawks playoff scenario, Seattle needs to beat Arizona and hope that the Panthers can win at Atlanta.

If those two things happen, then the Seahawks will get a wildcard spot. If only one or neither happens, then Seattle’s season is over.

Initially, it appeared Seattle might know its playoff fate when it kicked off at 1:25 p.m. against Arizona next Sunday, New Year’s Eve, with the Atlanta-Carolina game originally set for a 10 a.m. Seattle time start.

But the NFL reconfigured times of games after Sunday’s results to create the most TV drama possible, and moved the Atlanta-Carolina game back as a result.

Stated the NFL:

“The Carolina-Atlanta and New Orleans-Tampa Bay games will both move from 1:00 PM ET to 4:25 PM ET and remain on FOX.

In order to ensure that all games with playoff implications that impact each other are played at the same time, there will be no Sunday night game in Week 17.

“We felt that both from a competitive standpoint and from a fan perspective, the most fair thing to do is to schedule all Week 17 games in either the 1 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. ET windows,” said NFL Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Howard Katz. “This ensures that we do not have a matchup on Sunday Night Football on New Year’s Eve that because of earlier results has no playoff implications for one or both of the competing teams.”

So, everybody has to play their games straight up.

Carolina, which as stated, Seattle needs to win, has a lot on the line — the Panthers can be anywhere from the No. 2 seed in the NFC to the No. 5 seed depending on what happens next Sunday. A No. 2 seed would mean a first-round bye and a home game, and anything else means having to play the first weekend, with the five seed meaning going on the road as a wildcard.

So the Seahawks won’t be able to complain that they got no help from an unmotivated team.

As for the Seahawks, if they get to into the post-season it would be as the No. 6 seed — Seattle has two more losses than every other team in the NFC that has already clinched a playoff spot.

That would mean Seattle would go on the road the first weekend to one of four sites — Minnesota, Los Angeles, Carolina or New Orleans. Most likely to end up as the No. 3 seed appears to the Rams, though it’s hard to tell how Los Angeles will approach its final home game against the surging 49ers with the division title already wrapped up and playing only for the difference between being the three seed or the four.

The website 538.com gives Seattle a 29 percent chance of making the playoffs, which while maybe still somewhat stark (and largely based on the thought that Atlanta can beat the Panthers at home) is a lot better than the 13 percent going into the weekend.

But it’s also a heck of a lot better than the zero it would have been with a loss at Dallas.