Women’s basketball is an infamously underrated sport, falling significantly in ratings to its male counterpart. Caitlin Clark, the National Player of the Year, is single-handedly changing that and bringing a well-known face and identity to the game.
Clark is a senior guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes who made her mark throughout her career there, especially last season in her national championship appearance against LSU.
Although Iowa lost 85 to the Tiger’s 102, Clark gained an individual victory amidst the loss, breaking a 30-year record.
“Caitlin Clark scored a game-high 30 points, setting a new record for points scored in a single NCAA tournament,” NCAA said.
This was not the first record and stand-out performance from the Des Moines native. Throughout her March Madness play time, Clark made two massive marks in college football history.
In her 100th game, she joined names like Elena Delle Donne, Keydren Clark and Steph Curry. Clark netted the most points by a Division I men’s or women’s basketball player in that time span.
Additionally, she “was the first player in NCAA Tournament history with back-to-back 40-point games. It’s only happened once in the history of the men’s tournament: Austin Carr had three straight in 1970,” Hawkeye Sports said.
Her performances led to massive rating spikes and a massive in-person audience at the Championship, with the NCAA reporting a sellout crowd of 19,482 in attendance after a tournament record of over 350,000 throughout March Madness.
“[The championship] game itself has been a big story thanks to it averaging an astonishing 9.9 million combined viewers on ABC and ESPN2,” The Athletic said. “That shattered the old record of an average of 8.1 million viewers for a Virginia-Stanford national semifinal on CBS in 1992 — which occurred in a wildly different television industry landscape.”
Iowa’s Final Four game was also record-breaking, in large part to Clark’s performance, with ESPN reporting a whopping 5.5 million viewers.
“The Iowa versus South Carolina Final Four game was the catalyst that has made this season’s semifinals the most viewed Women’s NCAA Tournament semifinals in ESPN’s history. It is also the most-viewed semifinal game on record,” Hawkeyes Wire said.
The ratings boost has turned attention to the game that has never been seen before, with names like Angel Reese and Clark proving their impact.
“It’s been amazing how much she is growing this game,” head Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder said at the Big Ten Championship post-game press conference. “She’s the face of women’s basketball across the United States.”
Clark’s impact was not limited to last season. Already this year, her fame has led to a surge in attendance at games.
“The stands were filled with 55,646 fans, a figure that shattered the NCAA’s single-session attendance record by over 26,000 people,” People said. “The previous record was a tie earned during the 2002 NCAA tournament when the Final Four teams — Tennessee, Duke, UConn, and Oklahoma — collectively filled 29,619 seats at The Alamodome in San Antonio.”
Fans have converged from far and wide in Iowa just to see Clark’s skills in person.
“Caitlin is a premier guard that has an incredible offensive skill set,” Bluder said on Hawkeye Sports. “She has the ability to score at will while also being an uncanny passer in feeding her teammates the ball. She is an exciting playmaker in all realms.”
Clark is expected to enter the WNBA draft in 2024 and is reportedly “trusting her gut” with the decision.
“Clark, who turns 22 in February and is both an athletic and academic All-American, could declare for the draft after playing four years,” ABC News said.
Hopefully, she will continue to bring a draw to women’s basketball like she has throughout her college career. This year, there has been a surge of interest in the WNBA, which could be just a start for the sport.
“The WNBA on ABC averaged 627,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed regular season on ABC in 11 years,” The WNBA said. “The 2023 WNBA Regular Season reached over 36 million total unique viewers across all national networks, the highest since 2008 and up 27 percent from 2022.”
Clark is the argument women need to counter the “men are just better” justification. Her athleticism is something you just have to see to believe, which is making the sport as a whole more exciting.
“If you want to watch the best shooter in college basketball, men or women, it’s Caitlin…there’s nobody like her,” Dan Patrick said on the ‘Dan Patrick Show” in February.
Clark has beaten out Curry’s point record within the 100-game time span, time will tell what the rest of her career will hold.
Caitlin Clark is changing women’s basketball
Women’s basketball is an infamously underrated sport, falling significantly in ratings to its male counterpart. Caitlin Clark, the National Player of the Year, is single-handedly changing that and bringing a well-known face and identity to the game.
Clark is a senior guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes who made her mark throughout her career there, especially last season in her national championship appearance against LSU.
Although Iowa lost 85 to the Tiger’s 102, Clark gained an individual victory amidst the loss, breaking a 30-year record.
“Caitlin Clark scored a game-high 30 points, setting a new record for points scored in a single NCAA tournament,” NCAA said.
This was not the first record and stand-out performance from the Des Moines native. Throughout her March Madness play time, Clark made two massive marks in college football history.
In her 100th game, she joined names like Elena Delle Donne, Keydren Clark and Steph Curry. Clark netted the most points by a Division I men’s or women’s basketball player in that time span.
Additionally, she “was the first player in NCAA Tournament history with back-to-back 40-point games. It’s only happened once in the history of the men’s tournament: Austin Carr had three straight in 1970,” Hawkeye Sports said.
Her performances led to massive rating spikes and a massive in-person audience at the Championship, with the NCAA reporting a sellout crowd of 19,482 in attendance after a tournament record of over 350,000 throughout March Madness.
“[The championship] game itself has been a big story thanks to it averaging an astonishing 9.9 million combined viewers on ABC and ESPN2,” The Athletic said. “That shattered the old record of an average of 8.1 million viewers for a Virginia-Stanford national semifinal on CBS in 1992 — which occurred in a wildly different television industry landscape.”
Iowa’s Final Four game was also record-breaking, in large part to Clark’s performance, with ESPN reporting a whopping 5.5 million viewers.
“The Iowa versus South Carolina Final Four game was the catalyst that has made this season’s semifinals the most viewed Women’s NCAA Tournament semifinals in ESPN’s history. It is also the most-viewed semifinal game on record,” Hawkeyes Wire said.
The ratings boost has turned attention to the game that has never been seen before, with names like Angel Reese and Clark proving their impact.
“It’s been amazing how much she is growing this game,” head Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder said at the Big Ten Championship post-game press conference. “She’s the face of women’s basketball across the United States.”
Clark’s impact was not limited to last season. Already this year, her fame has led to a surge in attendance at games.
“The stands were filled with 55,646 fans, a figure that shattered the NCAA’s single-session attendance record by over 26,000 people,” People said. “The previous record was a tie earned during the 2002 NCAA tournament when the Final Four teams — Tennessee, Duke, UConn, and Oklahoma — collectively filled 29,619 seats at The Alamodome in San Antonio.”
Fans have converged from far and wide in Iowa just to see Clark’s skills in person.
“Caitlin is a premier guard that has an incredible offensive skill set,” Bluder said on Hawkeye Sports. “She has the ability to score at will while also being an uncanny passer in feeding her teammates the ball. She is an exciting playmaker in all realms.”
Clark is expected to enter the WNBA draft in 2024 and is reportedly “trusting her gut” with the decision.
“Clark, who turns 22 in February and is both an athletic and academic All-American, could declare for the draft after playing four years,” ABC News said.
Hopefully, she will continue to bring a draw to women’s basketball like she has throughout her college career. This year, there has been a surge of interest in the WNBA, which could be just a start for the sport.
“The WNBA on ABC averaged 627,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed regular season on ABC in 11 years,” The WNBA said. “The 2023 WNBA Regular Season reached over 36 million total unique viewers across all national networks, the highest since 2008 and up 27 percent from 2022.”
Clark is the argument women need to counter the “men are just better” justification. Her athleticism is something you just have to see to believe, which is making the sport as a whole more exciting.
“If you want to watch the best shooter in college basketball, men or women, it’s Caitlin…there’s nobody like her,” Dan Patrick said on the ‘Dan Patrick Show” in February.
Clark has beaten out Curry’s point record within the 100-game time span, time will tell what the rest of her career will hold.