Caitlin Clark & The New Light Shed On Women's Basketball

Over 9.9 million viewers watched this year’s championship game of the Women's NCAA basketball tournament between Iowa and LSU, making it the most-watched women's college basketball game in history. This championship game was not only record-breaking in terms of its attraction, but it also featured a plethora of all-time talent like Angel Reese, Alyiah Johnson, and one of the most talented players to date, Caitlin Clark. Countless viewers were staring starry-eyed at the TV this weekend as this young superstar lit up the court. With her average of 27.8 points per game, she was the second-highest female scorer in the country. Clark’s newfound popularity cemented her as a household name, attracting lots of popularity to women's college basketball.

On March 26, Cailtin Clark became the first player to tally a 40-point triple-double in NCAA Tournament Division I history, putting up 41 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds during the Elite Eight game against Louisville. This basketball phenomenon has set multiple records with her ground-breaking scoring, earning her the John R. Wooden National Player of the Year and the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year—two of college basketball’s most coveted awards. Clark, just like many of us, started as a young aspiring player shooting in her backyard at home in Des Moines, Iowa with her two brothers. She started playing basketball on her AAU team in sixth grade and now attends the University of Iowa, where she is currently a junior. At Iowa, Clark was named second-team All-American her first year and then first-team All-American her sophomore year. She followed this by breaking the record for all-time scoring in the NCAA March Madness with 191 points. Caitlin Clark, barely known months ago, has now crafted a record-breaking profile for herself.

Alongside Clark’s fame, women's college basketball popularity has skyrocketed during the 2023 Women's NCAA Tournament. The 9.9 million viewers during the championship game was a record for a women’s college basketball game, in comparison to last year’s average of about 4.5 million viewers for the Final Four. Not only has women’s basketball hit a record number of views, but for the first time since 1995, the NCAA championship game was televised on the ABC Network. The women's game, which took place in the Final Four stadium, was sold-out. The average price of a ticket for the Men's Final Four 2023, held at a significantly larger stadium than the women's, was $234. Meanwhile, the women's tickets averaged about $331, making the women's tickets 30 percent more expensive. The significant increase in the amount of viewers and fans watching the Women's basketball tournament shows that women's basketball is reaching a newfound level of recognition.

Clark’s talent led Iowa to the championship game against Angel Reese, while also growing the popularity of women’s basketball exponentially. With the help of Clark, this year’s NCAA Tournament will be remembered as one of the greatest NCAA Women's tournaments of all time, showcasing many underlying talents that are changing the game forever.