South Carolina-UConn matchup, College GameDay amplify attention directed towards women's college basketball

Every time South Carolina and UConn face each other, the eyes of the women’s college basketball world are locked in on the matchup.

And for good reason. The Gamecocks and Huskies have combined for 7 of the last 11 national titles. At least one of these teams has been present in the Final Four each year since 2007.

Join GamecockCentral: $1 per week for the first year

The quality present on the court creates an added level of interest that follows South Carolina and UConn into each of their annual regular season matchups, including their most recent bout on Sunday. On Feb. 4, ESPN’s College GameDay announced it would be sending its team of reporters and analysts to preview the game during a two-hour broadcast before tipoff. Social media posts and advertisements promoting the show have since populated ESPN’s digital platforms.

“I think it speaks to where we are in our game. It seems like, if you’re watching the game, every other commercial is us and UConn,” Dawn Staley said on Friday. “It costs money to actually put those promotions on television. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t get a return on their investment, and I do think you get a return on your investment when you play games like this in the middle of February.”

Broadcast networks’ and advertisers’ bottom lines were not the only things that stood to benefit from the marquee contest. A sellout crowd of 18,000 spectators packed Colonial Life Arena to witness the game, which ended 87-58 in favor of the Huskies. Many of these fans found their seats shortly after 10 a.m. – three hours before the opening whistle.

In Staley’s opinion, though, the impact of matchups like South Carolina-UConn extended beyond the city of Columbia.

“You have to have them,” Staley said. “I think they push the game forward.”

In the grand scheme of women’s college basketball history, the rivalry between the Gamecocks and the Huskies has only recently emerged. The two teams squared off for the first time on Dec. 17, 2007, in a game that also resulted in a UConn victory – that time, by a 97-39 score.

UConn head women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said the Huskies’ regular season matchups against South Carolina, which have been contested annually since the 2014-15 season, have turned into some of the most-anticipated games in the college sports calendar.

Win tickets to the South Carolina-Arkansas women’s basketball game

“This is a great rivalry. It became a headache for me when they started winning back home, but it became a great rivalry. I think it’s one of the premier games in college basketball right now,” Auriemma said. “It means a lot to a lot of people, which is great.”

Auriemma made it clear, though, that more programs beyond South Carolina and UConn are leading recent growth trends in NCAA women’s basketball.

Just one week ago, the Gamecocks played Texas in a game that preceded Super Bowl LIV, which was scheduled for later that night. The contest drew 1 million viewers, peaking at 1.3 million viewers on ESPN. Per a social media post from the network, it was the most-watched women’s college basketball game this season.

The sport has also seen record-level viewership in its last two national championship games. The LSU-Iowa matchup that concluded the 2022-23 season became the most-watched NCAA women’s basketball game ever with 12.3 million viewers. The Hawkeyes met the Gamecocks in the final the next season, and that record – and more – were broken. With an audience of 18.9 million, it saw more viewers than any men’s or women’s college basketball game in ESPN’s live broadcasting history.

NCAA women’s basketball games may not see viewership numbers that high until the postseason. But fans of the sport have had plenty of high-profile matchups to observe this season – and that number has only grown in recent years, Auriemma said.

“The Texas-South Carolina game was a big game. Everyone was paying attention to that. The LSU-South Carolina game was a big game. The UCLA-South Carolina game was a big game. Connecticut-Tennessee was a big game. Connecticut-Notre Dame was a big game; Connecticut-USC was a big game,” Auriemma said. “There are more big games now than there used to be, and they involve more than just UConn and South Carolina.”

Discuss South Carolina women’s basketball on The Insiders Forum!