The Seattle Seahawks will head a little bit east this Sunday to play a 1 p.m. ET road game at Minnesota. That team means kickoff is actually 12 p.m. CT in Minnesota and 10 a.m. PT in Seattle, which leads to the question: Is it fair for Seattle to have to play a mid-morning playoff game when three other time slots were available?

It depends on how you look at it. I could go either way, the ways being as such:

1. Having Seattle play in the mid-morning is ridiculous. There are four playoff time slots. Three involve the Seahawks playing at a “normal” time. One would necessitate them playing at 1 p.m. on the east coat, 10 a.m. on the west. Guess which one they got? This is pretty lame considering that the alternative — giving Seattle one of the other time slots — would have been so easy. Just flip-flop the Packers-Redskins game (4:40 p.m. ET) with the Seahawks game and bingo-bango this whole thing is taken care of. Then Seattle doesn’t get the disadvantage of playing in the morning and Seattle’s Sunday brunch industry doesn’t have to take a football-related hit.

2. Hey, want to control your playoff time slot? Win a division. If the Seahawks were playing in Seattle, they’d never have a 1 p.m. ET game because 10 a.m. PT is too darn early for fans to attend a game. The NFL doesn’t do that. But Seattle lost the NFC West and was at the mercy of the scheduling gods. And because CBS and Fox seemed to get the two best AFC/NFC games (Steelers at Bengals for CBS, Packers at Redskins for Fox), the remaining two games were divided between NBC and ESPN.

The rest is just guesswork (and we’ve reached out to a network in hopes of turning this guess into fact) — but because CBS was stuck with the 1 p.m. ET Sunday slot last year while NBC got a primetime bonanza in Steelers-Ravens, you’d assume it was CBS’s turn to get those nighttime ratings, leaving NBC to take a still-excellent 1 p.m. Sunday slot and ESPN, being the new kid on the playoff block, getting left with a still-good Chiefs-Texans games at the odd 4:35 p.m. ET Saturday window, the same window they had last year, also with the least intriguing game.

But back to the whole “is it fair?” thing? I mean, it’s not Seattle is playing in Beijing on three days notice. They have a full week to acclimate themselves to playing an early wild-card game that’s just three hours off their regular time and something they have to deal with at least once a year (usually).

There is reason for concern, however. Since Pete Carroll took over the team in 2010, the Seahawks have played 13 games on the east coast, accruing a 6-7 record. Since becoming an NFL power in 2012, that record is 5-5. But Seattle isn’t going to the east coast. Yes, they’re playing a 10 a.m. PT game, but it’s in the Central time zone. Throw that time zone into the mix and the team is actually an even-more pedestrian 11-14 in 10 a.m. PT games since Carroll took over and 8-9 playing 10 a.m. PT games since 2012. That includes an 0-2 record in early playoff games during Carroll’s tenure.

Over the same span (since 2012), the Seahawks record in non-10 a.m. PT games is 44-11. So is this playoff timing unfair? No. But could it be detrimental to the Seahawks’ efforts to get back to the Super Bowl? Absolutely.

Oh, one last thing: The Seahawks, the poor, unfortunate Seahawks, for whom a good night’s sleep is the key to playoff success went to Minnesota one month ago to play a 10 a.m. PT game. They won 38-7.