The Women’s NCAA National Championship victory by undefeated South Carolina over Iowa averaged 18.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, far outpacing the 14.8 million average viewers of the men’s championship between defending champion UConn and Purdue. The game was the most-watched basketball game, men or women, at any level, since 2019. The success of this game, along with the entire women’s tournament, marks a historic development in women’s basketball, which has long played second fiddle to the men’s tournament, and women’s sports as a whole.
In the championship game, the storylines were tremendous, with superstar Caitlin Clark looking for her first national championship in her final college game, and South Carolina, led by Head Coach Dawn Staley and 6 foot 7 inch Kamilla Cardoso, hoping to cap their undefeated season with a title. This matchup was preceded by a highly-anticipated rematch of the 2023 championship between Iowa and LSU in the Elite Eight, which pitted Clark, the NCAA all-time leading scorer, against Angel Reese, another star in the NCAA women’s circuit. In that game, Clark dropped 41 points and dished out 12 assists, leading the Hawkeyes to a Final Four matchup with UConn and their dynamic superstar, Paige Bueckers. Iowa’s nail-biting victory over the Huskies in front of 14.4 million at home set the stage for Sunday’s record-breaking championship game.
Clark’s impact on the ascension of the women’s game has been profound, with this year’s championship showing a 285% increase in viewership over the 2022 championship, the most recent title game to not include Clark. Although Clark has been the driving force, other factors have contributed to the rise of women’s basketball. Earlier this year, the NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Challenge brought attention to Sabrina Ionescu and the WNBA, showing to the world the elite skill of top women’s players.
In addition, the star-starved state of the men’s game in comparison to the star-studded women’s game has also increased interest. In men’s college basketball, the best players routinely leave college quickly, or don’t go to college at all, to pursue NBA careers. In the women’s game, top talents like Clark, Reese, and Bueckers stay for all four years of college in order to be eligible for the WNBA Draft. This system, compared to the one-and-done men’s atmosphere, increases fan recognition of players and keeps the stars of the game in college, leading to better competition and more intense storylines as teams face off year after year.
Clark also emphasizes her place as a role model for young girls, saying, “I was that same kid a few years ago. I remember going to games like this. I remember wanting to high-five, wanting an autograph, wanting to catch a T-shirt. It does make [their] whole week, and it really takes a second out of your day. That’s how I was raised, to go out of your way to show kindness to somebody else.” Clark’s excellence displays the value in female role models for young girls, and her eagerness to be that role model shows that women’s basketball is in good hands for years to come.
