Captivating title game punctuates historic women's college basketball season

After indomitable South Carolina held off Caitlin Clark’s Iowa team in Sunday’s captivating national title game, Gamecock fans serenaded their team with a chorus of applause that is deserving for an entire sport.

Women’s basketball, take a bow. Your thriving game has been one of the greatest shows in all of sports.

The best news? Sunday’s game on ABC – which almost certainly will be the most-watched women’s game in history – represents more of a jumping-off point than an apex. 

With more resources finally dedicated to it, more platforms finally spotlighting it, and more stars (see USC’s JuJu Watkins and South Carolina’s title game star Tessa Johnson) poised to shine, don’t expect its popularity wave to recede anytime soon.

Years from now we may put Sunday’s game in the same rarefied air as the iconic 1979 Michigan State–Indiana State national title game – the most-viewed men’s college game in history – which served as an ignition point for the nation’s love affair with the men’s tournament.

Still, not in their wildest dreams could stakeholders have scripted this: A women’s final whose viewership could eclipse that of an average NFL game (17.9 million). 

And in the middle of Final Four weekend, a cold open on “Saturday Night Live” focusing on women’s basketball – “You know how many people watched the Iowa-Connecticut game? 14 million people. Man, that’s ‘Young Sheldon‘ numbers.”

Clark Mania a key in women’s college basketball’s climb

It’s not all because of Caitlin Clark Mania, although that’s a central ingredient.

Michael Mulvihill, FOX Corp’s president of insights and analytics, posted on social media that Clark’s first nine games at Iowa were not televised, only streamed. Contrast that with her Elite Eight and national semifinal games, victories against LSU and UConn respectively, each setting new all-time women’s basketball viewing records.

“Most fascinating sports media story in a long time,” Mulvihill said. 

After winning her third national championship, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told the crowd: “I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport.”

NCAA addressing equality concerns

After the NCAA in recent years made strides in addressing gender-inequity issues, more belated progress is on the way. 

Amy Perko emailed On3 a statement from Knight Commission co-chairs last week laying out that, later this month, the NCAA will distribute more than $170 million based on men’s teams’ wins and participation in their tournament. By stark contrast, the NCAA will award no dollars for the wins and participation of any women’s teams.

“Fixing this inequity by providing equal incentives for athletic success for men’s and women’s teams should be a lay-up,” the statement read.

Interestingly, as if on cue, NCAA President Charlie Baker told reporters in Cleveland prior to Sunday’s game he is committed to introducing financial units into the women’s tournament next season.

Even as the transcendent Clark bids farewell to college basketball, the women’s game appears at the doorstep of a golden age.

“I think this is a – it’s a moment, like people are saying, but it’s more than a moment,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “You know, sometimes moments become minutes, and minutes become hours, and hours become days. And the next thing you know, it becomes part of the national pastime.”