The NCAA women's basketball season officially ended its banner season on Sunday with some jaw-dropping drama, but not a surprising ending.
In an unprecedented season, the hugely popular University of South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the University of Iowa to win the national championship. Millions watched the entire sport reach new heights thanks to the immense popularity of Iowa State superstar Caitlin Clark, the sheer dominance of the Gamecocks, and the dynamic personalities of Louisiana State University. was witnessed and many viewing records were set.
But what happens now?
Clark's brilliant college career is over. She is the presumed top pick in next week's WNBA Draft. The University of South Carolina is etched in the record books as the 10th program in Division I history to finish the season undefeated, and she is the fifth program in women's college basketball history to win three national titles. And LSU's Angel Reese missed out on a shot at a second straight national championship as Clark's University of Iowa lost to her team in the Elite Eight, but she plans to advance to the WNBA, where she was selected in the lottery. It is expected that
Women in this sport simply have to offer people a great product, a charismatic personality, and a compelling story to pay attention to, and they will be rewarded with the same attention and investment that has automatically been given to men. has been said for decades. This is the old chicken-and-egg debate, but it doesn't matter whether the woman is the chicken or the egg. The investments do not match the quality of the products presented by the women.
It must be different now. This was probably the best women's college basketball season in history, as evidenced by her blockbuster run in the NCAA Tournament this year. For the first time, more people watched the women's national championship game than the men, marking the third time in a week that the women set a television ratings record. This was a natural break in a season where viewership for women's games increased by 37% across ESPN platforms, and women's basketball games on the Fox network averaged more viewers than men's.
After last year's national championship game between LSU and Iowa drew a then-record 9.9 million viewers, there was some skepticism about whether the women's players could maintain the same huge ratings. there were. In fact, they did even better. Last week's much-hyped Iowa-LSU rematch drew 12.3 million viewers. Four days later, more than 14 million people watched Clark defeat perennial powerhouse University of Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament. And in Sunday's championship game, the women's players made ratings that are likely to be relevant to the NFL. The South Carolina-Iowa game averaged 18.7 million viewers.
Not only was this Finals the most-watched game in women's basketball history and the most-watched game in all of basketball since 2019, these games also surpassed last year's NBA Finals and the 2023 college football season. It delivered more viewers than all but four games. .
“Like everyone says, it's a moment, but it's more than a moment, you know?” Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma told reporters. “Sometimes moments become minutes, minutes become hours, hours become days. And before you know it, it's part of the national pastime.”
Unfortunately, whenever moments like this have occurred in the past, the NCAA and the media have not always given the women the resources and attention they need. In 1983, University of Southern California basketball legend Cheryl Miller made her national television debut against Louisiana Tech, the first women's basketball team to win the NCAA national championship the previous year. For her championship, the Trojans defeated the Lady Techsters (yes, that's what they were called at the time), and Miller won her first title as a shocking freshman at the University of Southern California. The game, which aired on CBS, attracted nearly 12 million viewers.
It would have been a great opportunity for the organization to elevate the representative women's sport. All the ingredients were there: a dynamic player in a major media market (Los Angeles) and a formidable rival. But instead of piling on success, the NCAA spent years prioritizing, promoting, and nurturing the men's basketball tournament.
These were not the only opportunities to develop the women's game and bring it to the same level as men's. In 1995, the women's national title game between the University of Connecticut and then-rival University of Tennessee drew 7.4 million viewers, when the women's Final Four was broadcast exclusively on CBS. The following year, the women's national basketball team won the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. ESPN then took over the NCAA Tournament as part of his seven-year, $19 million contract, expanding the scope of the competition. And while ESPN certainly deserves credit for helping expand the women's game, last year marked the first time the network decided to broadcast a championship game on ABC, which led to a huge ratings explosion. fulfilled its role.
The fight for women's basketball to claim its own territory has been a rewarding one. The WNBA debuted in 1997, but as the WNBA's viewership and talent grew, the NCAA seemed slow to make changes that would accelerate its growth. It was three years ago that the NCAA decided to brand the women's tournament with its famous marketing slogan “March Madness,” which was once reserved for men. Participating teams in the women's tournament were also finally expanded to 68 teams in 2021, 10 years after the men did it.
But these changes weren't because the NCAA realized what it had. They came because the NCAA was publicly shamed. In 2021, both the men's and women's tournaments were held in a bubble environment due to the coronavirus pandemic. Several women's players and administrators in the NCAA Tournament criticized the organization on social media over the apparent disparity in weight room facilities. While the men were given a huge, well-stocked gym fit for top athletes, the women were given only a small rack to hold dumbbells and a few yoga mats. The NCAA apologized after the barrage, but the optics were so dire that it was pressured to hire an outside firm to conduct a gender equity review.
The assessment states, “The NCAA's broadcast contracts, corporate sponsorship agreements, revenue sharing, organizational structure, and culture all work in ways that create, normalize, and perpetuate gender inequality, making Division I men's basketball more competitive than all other It became clear that he was prioritizing things over other things. The report also noted that the budget for the men's basketball tournament in 2019 was more than double that of the women's tournament, fostering the perception that the men were “deserving of increased investment.”
The valuation estimates that women's basketball annual broadcast rights will be worth between $81 million and $112 million in 2025. Earlier this year, the NCAA reached an eight-year, $920 million deal with ESPN, giving the sports network exclusive rights to 40 championships. Including women's basketball. That equates to $65 million a year for the tournament, one of the best values in sports considering CBS and Turner Sports pay the NCAA $870 million a year to broadcast the men's basketball tournament. It looks like.
No one was surprised to learn that the NCAA hasn't exactly followed through on its promise to strengthen the women's game. But perhaps one of the more important conclusions from this review is that the NCAA severely underestimated the women's college basketball tournament. Women are always blamed for the sport's shortcomings, when in reality they were undermined from the beginning. Meanwhile, the National Women's Soccer League signed a cross-platform media rights deal worth $240 million in November, making it the largest media deal in women's sports history. This amount is 40 times the amount of the previous contract.
While it can be difficult to compare professional and college athletes, the women's soccer league's most-watched game to date was the 2022 championship, which averaged 915,000 viewers. That year's game against South Carolina drew nearly 5 million viewers, making it the most-watched title game in nearly 20 years. And this was before the title game's recent return to network television.
Some speculate that the NCAA made a mistake by not negotiating a separate television broadcast contract for women's basketball.
“We need more networks to compete for talent,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said in November. “I don’t know if that will actually happen, but I hope it happens in the near future.”
Caitlin Clark is making a dramatic difference in women's basketball, and there are many encouraging signs that the game won't lose any momentum when she moves to the WNBA. Women's basketball has never been healthier. South Carolina lost its best player in the WNBA Draft, Camila Cardoso, but the majority of the team will return next year to defend the national title and continue the dynasty. JuJu Watkins, a standout freshman guard from the University of Southern California, was her second-leading scorer behind Clark in Division I women's basketball. Watkins broke Clark's freshman scoring record by 121 points and led the Trojans to the Elite Eight. And with USC moving into the Big Ten Conference, Watkins is poised to become one of the game's biggest stars, along with Notre Dame's freshman Hannah Hidalgo and South Carolina's Milesia Fulwilly.
The remarkable growth in college baseball has led to much speculation as to whether that growth will be reflected in the WNBA, which begins its season on May 14th. Already, there are signs that fears that the Clark effect will not carry over are unfounded. Ticket sales for Clark's likely team, the Indiana Fever, increased by a whopping 136 percent. Also, 36 of his 40 games for the Fever will be nationally televised, giving fans a chance to soak in the star power the rest of the league's games have to offer.
The bottom line is that women have done their part by providing plenty of compelling reasons for the game to thrive. The only question is whether the gatekeepers will let them down again.