Shohei Ohtani played a huge role in a Game 1 victory for the Dodgers during his much-awaited playoff debut Saturday. MLB and its broadcast partners are poised to be big winners as well.

The viewership numbers for Ohtani’s playoff debut are expected to be announced Tuesday, sources tell Front Office Sports, but there are already indications why MLB, following a wild-card round that saw a 25% increase in viewership versus last year, should be celebrating. 

For instance, the video of Ohtani’s first playoff home run passed one million views in less than 24 hours on MLB’s YouTube channel, putting it in the top 20 most-viewed videos on the account over the last 12 months. On X, the clip has nearly five million views, while no other post has more than 1.6 million views since the beginning of the playoffs.

The league is not shy about putting the spotlight on Ohtani, who went through his first six MLB seasons without sniffing the playoffs. MLB deputy commissioner Noah Garden admits to FOS that it’s “good and important” for fans to see the two-time AL MVP on the postseason stage.

“Certainly having Ohtani on this stage is great for the game, great for the fans, and he’s having such a historic season,” Garden says.

The Padres won Game 2 of the best-of-five series against Ohtani and the Dodgers Sunday night.

MLB’s Recipe for Success

MLB is optimistic about the prospect of improved playoff viewership results following an 8% decline during last year’s postseason, capped off by the least-watched World Series in history. 

But the Dodgers’ $700 million man isn’t the league’s only ingredient to a bounceback postseason.

Several big-market franchises are in contention to make deep playoff runs—including the Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Dodgers. The Padres aren’t one of the league’s biggest markets, but the team has stars like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado—as well as a loyal fanbase, finishing fourth in attendance.

Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper, the two players behind Ohtani on MLB’s list of highest-jersey sales, are also viewership attractions. Garden specified the presence of the former, who was also absent from last year’s playoffs.

“Judge is having as good a monster season as well, and we’ve got a lot of our amazing, young players in there, too,” Garden says. “We’re going to be showcasing our best players, that’s for sure.”

Several permutations could keep the league’s top stars and markets out of Fall Classic—baseball is an unpredictable sport and last year’s Diamondbacks-Rangers World Series was certainly unexpected—but there’s no denying what MLB’s best-case scenario is: a Dodgers–Yankees, Ohtani–Judge final.

Vanderbilt and Arkansas came away with magical victories Saturday, but the schools will pay a hefty sum for their fans’ post-game celebrations.

On Saturday, the Commodores won 40–35 over top-ranked Alabama and the Razorbacks rallied to win 19–14 over No. 4 Tennessee—leading to both teams’ fans storming the field and taking down goalposts in the process.

The SEC policy on storming the field, which was updated in June 2023, indicates Vanderbilt will be fined $100,000 for the incident at FirstBank Stadium, while Arkansas will face a $250,000 fine as a repeat offender.

A third offense would result in a $500,000 penalty under the new rules.

Under the old rules, the Commodores would have actually been fined $250,000—which was the price for a third offense—as its fans violated the rule in 2022 and early 2023. However, when the SEC unveiled its new rules, it instituted a clean slate for every school.

Worth the Fine

A $100,000 penalty doesn’t hit the same across SEC schools. If Alabama were fined, it would just be a drop in a bucket since the school spent over $80 million on its football program last season. But it may sting for Vanderbilt, which had the conference’s lowest revenue figure last year.

Then again, a win like this doesn’t come often.

The Commodores were 23.5-point underdogs entering Saturday’s game. The win marked the school’s first victory over a top-five team.

At Arkansas, the top brass have already expressed the school’s openness to paying the fine for their students’ celebration. 

“I think the AD’s gonna be mad. Maybe he won’t be. But right now I don’t care,” Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman told ESPN after the game.

When asked by CBS Sports whether his team would be happy to pay the fine, AD Hunter Yuracheck responded, “Hell yeah!”

The NFL may be years away from expanding its schedule yet again, but growing the regular season from 17 games to 18 appears to be only a matter of time.

As the 2024 season enters its second quarter, the physical tolls of playing football start piling up for stars, veteran journeymen, and rookies across the league. Injuries—from concussions and torn ACLs to ruptured Achilles’ heels—serve as a sobering reminder about the cost of competing in the NFL.

Viewership is soaring, though, and the NFL continues to find its way onto more non-traditional spots of the calendar—potentially all the more reason for the league to make its season even bigger.

How We Got Here

Last week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell once again alluded to an 18-game season—a common theme for him this year—saying it could be tied to playing as many as 16 international games per season. Around the NFL draft back in May, Goodell made several public comments about wanting to turn one of the league’s three annual preseason games into a regular-season contest.

Achieving that goal won’t be easy, though. Many players, like Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, have suggested growing the season to 18 games, but only if teams get a second bye week. 

That bargaining sentiment was echoed by anonymous players in a recent poll conducted by The Athletic. When asked whether they were in favor of the NFL adding an 18th regular-season game, 59.3% of the 106 players who responded said no, 26.9% said yes, and 13.9% were undecided. Many respondents pointed to adding a second bye week as a nice exchange for a theoretical 18th game.

The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2029 season. Any changes now or in the future would require high-level negotiations.