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Two years ago, I never could have predicted the hype surrounding tonight's NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four.
It wasn't until last year that this casual but sometimes serious sports fan met the basketball Hall of Famer, but didn't recognize her. Fortunately, former NCAA head coach Muffet McGraw was kind enough to overlook my transgression.
I'm definitely to blame for not knowing who I was talking to, but I'm sure I wasn't the only casual sports fan who didn't know about women's NCAA basketball at the time. .
That all changed. Women's college basketball is a star on the map, not just for casual fans. At least that's thanks to Iowa State star Caitlin Clark.
First, let's talk about TV ratings. More than 12 million people watched Clark's Hawkeyes defeat Angel Reese's LSU on Monday night, according to ESPN. In today's media environment, the idea that more than 12 million people would watch his non-NFL cable show is unheard of.
If you look at the average nightly cable ratings, the top shows typically have far fewer than 5 million viewers.
Monday's game would have been a Top 45 program in 2023 if it had been broadcast in prime time on the network.
In fact, most major sporting events do not attract more than 12 million spectators. The Iowa vs. LSU game drew more viewers than the average MLB World Series, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup game last season.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Clark fights Reese during the Elite Eight matchup.
Look at the previous sentence again to fully understand it. Women's college basketball has surpassed America's pastime. If that doesn't say this sport has permeated the American psyche, I don't know what does.
Not surprisingly, viewership for the Iowa-LSU game broke the all-time record for a women's game. In last year's championship game between the two teams, they were easily dethroned for just under $10 million. Even more amazingly, that game was available for free on ABC, unlike Monday's game.
Also note that both the new and old records involve Iowa State and LSU. Before last year's championship game, the highest ratings for a women's game had been in more than 20 years (before the media split). Just 5.7 million people attended that game.
In other words, the new record is more than double the previous record.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Monday night's ratings record is that it wasn't a championship game. There wasn't even a semifinal. It was an Elite Eight matchup.
Of course, it's not unusual for non-championship games to receive widespread attention in Iowa. The number of viewers for the past three games was 6.9 million, 4.9 million and 3.2 million. All of these would have been records outside of the Final Four or Championship Game before this season.
Rebecca Gratz/NCAA Photography/Getty Images
Dee Vanderhoof, an Iowa Hawkeyes fan and season ticket holder since the 1970s, cheers before tipoff against the Holy Cross Crusaders in the first round of the tournament.
That 6.9 million audience would have been the largest television broadcast in women's college basketball history at any stage prior to last season.
It's also worth noting that after Monday night's Iowa vs. LSU (UConn vs. USC) game, 6.7 million Americans tuned in to the game, so this isn't just a Clark phenomenon.
There is another way to gauge interest in this season's tournaments. Check out Google searches for women's college basketball.
There have been more searches this year than there have been since Google started searching in the early 2000s. This year's number is on track to more than double last year's record. Last year, it was double Clark's pre-fame record.
However, this year's women's tournament is not only doing well in past tournaments. Another big entertainment event last week was the release of Beyoncรฉ's new album. Far more people Googled the NCAA women's game than Googled Beyoncรฉ.
He has also won against politicians in this tournament. More people search for women's college basketball than US President Joe Biden. When he's berating the president, he knows he's the talk of the town.
Interest in this tournament goes beyond mere curiosity.
Every year, millions of Americans fill tournament spots. Usually reserved for men's tournaments. More and more Americans are filling the slots of women.
This year, more than 4 million Americans filled out brackets on one of the major websites that feature them (like ESPN or the NCAA). He received over 3 million responses on ESPN alone.
Those numbers are impressive on their own, but they're even more impressive when you consider where Clark was before he rose to prominence over the past two seasons.
Rebecca Gratz/NCAA Photography/Getty Images
Clark puts up a basket against the Holy Cross Crusaders in the first round.
In 2022, only about 1.5 million Americans participated in the women's tournament slot on ESPN.com. This means the number of women filling slots has more than doubled compared to just a few seasons ago.
Some of these brackets are just for bragging rights, while others have office funding pools associated with them.
In fact, there are many people who put their money on the line to watch women play.
Check prices for the Men's and Women's College Basketball Final Four. Tickets for both typically sell for a few hundred dollars on Stubhub. More than that, tickets to the women's tournament are often the most popular item over the past week.
So, depending on when you check, it's more expensive to watch the women's top four than the men's.
Two years ago, most people would have found this shocking. Given the past two weeks, I don't think anyone is that surprised.