We are coming off the heels of a historic showing of the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Championship. This year’s elimination tournament saw unprecedented numbers for both TV ratings and attendance. For the first time in years, the entire country has collectively sidestepped the men’s tournament in favor of the great athletes, stories, and rivalries on the women’s side, this paradigm shift can be credited to numerous women’s stars on the court, however, one Iowa Hawkeye has been the unarguable spokesperson for this rise in popularity, that athlete is Caitlin Clark.
An Iowa native herself, Clark put the University of Iowas women’s basketball program on the map when she led her team to last year’s national championship against LSU, despite falling short in the title game, Clark and her Hawkeyes let the nation know that their popularity was here to stay. Such popularity can only come with an elite performance on the court, that 2022-2023 season saw Clark averaging over 27 points per game, with a 47% free throw percentage.
Now fast forward to the most recent season, which saw Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes dominate again in the regular season and go on to earn a #1 seed in the tournament. Clark blew expectations for the regular season, becoming the leading scorer in the history of both women’s and men’s college basketball. This season also saw a record broken in the number of season tickets sold for the Iowa women’s games, with an astounding 13,000 purchased, passing the Iowa men’s team total by over 5,000. This is just the tip of the Caitlin Clark effect, as the tournament season would see more records shattered in not just the confinements of the University of Iowa, but nationally as well.
With heavy media coverage for the last two years, Caitlin Clark attracted the attention of millions of basketball fans and directed them toward the bigger, vaster world of women’s basketball. Clark’s media success trickled down to other elite athletes on the college scene, such as Uconn star Paige Bueckers, LSU star Angel Reese, and even USC freshman Kamilla Cardoso. In no way were these athletes completely unknown before Clark emerged as a national star, though their likeness benefited as a result of the coverage going towards their sport due in part to Caitlin Clark.
In the Elite Eight round of this year’s tournament, Iowa and Clark were once again met with LSU and Angel Reese, a rematch of the previous year’s title game. With the stakes high, Iowa prevailed and managed to break the TV viewership record for women’s basketball with a massive 12.3 million Nielsen rating. Four days later In the Final Four round versus Uconn, Clark and the Hawkeyes won yet again and set another viewership record with 14.43. Lastly, the Hawkeyes once again made it to the national championship, and although falling short of the title yet again to an elite South Carolina team, the viewership record was shattered again with 18.89.
Though coming short twice of bringing her school its first national championship, Clark’s legacy is unarguable at Iowa and in the college basketball world in general. Shortly after her final game with Iowa, Clark announced her declaration for the WNBA draft and was selected by the Indiana Fever as the first overall pick. While we have to wait a little bit more to see some more of Clark, the effect is already trickling into the WNBA scene. Indiana Fever has announced record-breaking ticket sales, and that effect can be seen all around the league.
So gone are the days of women’s basketball being considered “inferior” to the men’s side, America has finally woken up to the fun and dominance that can be seen on the court.
Journalism 2.0 