When the NFL announced that the Bucs vs. Panthers game was going to be nationally televised on Saturday, January 3 at 4:30 p.m. some Tampa Bay fans likely welcomed the news.

The fans who want to see their team beat Carolina and finish 8-9 with a fifth straight NFC South division title now had to wait one less day for that to possibly happen.

Well, not so fast.

In what now looks like a royal screw-up by the league thanks to the Falcons upsetting the Rams, 27-24, on Monday Night Football, if the Bucs beat the Panthers at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, they will have to wait until Sunday at 4:00 p.m. for the conclusion of the Saints vs. Falcons game to see if Tampa Bay actually wins the division and makes the playoffs with an 8-9 record.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: IMAGN – Bob Donnan

That’s because there was a tiebreaker scenario that existed after Week 17 that even if Tampa Bay beats Carolina in Week 18, two more wins by Atlanta would force a three-way tie at 8-9 between the three teams. That would then trigger the Panthers to win the tiebreaker against the Falcons and the Bucs – even if Dave Canales’ team loses at Ray Jay.

Atlanta’s upset of Los Angeles on Monday Night Football put the NFC South debacle one step closer to that scenario happening.

NFL Screws Over The Bucs And Their Fans

Why the NFL did this, instead of scheduling the Bucs vs. Panthers game for Sunday, January 4 at 1:00 p.m. ET alongside the Saints vs. Falcons game, reeks of incompetence and negligence by the league.

If Tampa Bay beats Carolina it could be division champions … well, maybe.

If the Bucs prevail, instead of the players and coaches having a joyful celebratory moment in the post-game locker room to receive their hats and t-shirts as division champions, that moment will be put on hold for about 20 hours. Now, the Bucs have to wait for the outcome of a Sunday game to determine their fate around 4:00 p.m. ET.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and Panthers HC Dave Canales – Photo by: USA Today

Of course the Bucs put themselves in this position by losing control of their own destiny by … well, losing so many games down the stretch. So Todd Bowles and Tampa Bay definitely deserve to be in this predicament to some degree.

But it’s not just the Buccaneers team that is being punished by having the Carolina vs. Tampa Bay game on Saturday. It’s also the Bucs fans who are being punished for the league’s dumb decision.

All of those Tampa Bay fans who will be in attendance for Saturday’s game won’t have the satisfaction of celebrating a division title in the stadium if the Bucs win. Now if the game was to be played on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. alongside the Saints vs. Falcons game, then those Bucs fans could scoreboard watch and possibly celebrate as a crowd just after 4:00 p.m. if the Bucs – and the Saints – prevail at the same time on Sunday.

Instead, Tampa Bay fans who possibly witness their team beat Carolina will have to go home feeling unsatisfied and filled with angst having to wait until Sunday to see if they will be buying playoff tickets for a Wild Card game at Raymond James Stadium next weekend. All of this could have been avoided if the NFL had taken greater care in this situation.

Or maybe this is part of some devious NFL front office plan to drum up more TV viewers for the Saints vs. Falcons game on Sunday? Let’s face it, nobody outside of New Orleans or Atlanta is interested in watching a 6-10 team battling a 7-9 team in Week 18.

But if the Bucs beat the Panthers on Saturday, then all of the Tampa Bay market will be tuning in to see the outcome in Atlanta on Sunday, and that would be a big boost for ratings.

If The Panthers Beat The Bucs, Then This Doesn’t Matter

And yet there is a contingent of Buccaneers fans – potentially a large one – that is actively rooting for the Panthers to win on Sunday just to put this team out of its misery. Sick and tired of seeing this year’s Tampa Bay team underachieve and free fall from a 6-2 start to its current, disappointing 7-9 record, some Tampa Bay fans just want this season to be put out of its misery – hoping that five straight losses to end the year will lead to a coaching change in 2026.

In a 24-hour poll conducted on the Pewter Report X account, over 2,000 Bucs fans voted on whether Todd Bowles deserved to return as the Bucs’ head coach in 2026 and 90% of them voted “no, absolutely not.”

If Carolina beats Tampa Bay on Sunday to sweep the Bucs and finish with a 9-8 record, then what happens in Sunday’s Saints vs. Falcons game won’t matter. The Panthers will win the NFC South with a 9-8 record and the Bucs could be tied for the worst record in the division at 7-10 along with the Saints if they beat the Falcons on Sunday.

That would represent a stunning collapse by Bowles’ team that was given a 90% of making the playoffs prior to the Bucs vs. Saints game in Week 14 – a game that saw Tampa Bay get upset by New Orleans and begin a losing streak that has currently stretched over four games.