This past season, Caitlin Clark, senior guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team, rose to fame. This season Clark has broken and set records, raising awareness for women’s sports.
Clark, the 22 year old senior who is originally from Iowa is changing the game of women’s college basketball as we know it. Despite never winning a national title, she is still considered one of womens college basketball’s best. Some of her biggest accomplishments include breaking the NCAA Division 1 all time leading scorer for mens and womens basketball and having over 3,900 points in her career. She broke the scoring record in a game against Ohio State on March 6th, which ended up being the most watched season game in 25 years with around 3.4 million viewers. She is also the all time leader in assists in the Big Ten. She is a 2 time Naismith player of the year, a 3 time All American and 3 time Big Ten player of the year. She set the record for most points in the NCAA tournament by scoring 191 points and broke the tournament record for most 3 pointers by scoring 32 of them. Clark has also contributed to an uproar in womens basketball fans, specifically Iowa fans. Since she joined the team in 2020 and showed off her skill, ticket prices have gone up 224% and there has been an uprising of 34% of people who traveled to watch Iowa play. This year during March Madness there were record breaking numbers for how many people watched, specifically during games Clark has played in.. In the final four, Tickpick reported they sold six times as many tickets for the women’s games compared to the men. During the final four matchup between Iowa and Uconn there were 14.2 million viewers, more than every NBA Finals game and every World Series game in the last four years. It was also ESPN’s highest audience for any basketball game on record. For the Women’s NCAA Championship game between South Carolina and Iowa, there were 18.7 million viewers, nearly 4 million more than the mens. It is very clear that because of players like Caitlin Clark, women’s basketball is starting to get the recognition it deserves. Clark’s effect won’t stop there, as this year Clark was taken 1st overall in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever. The viewership she produced at the collegiate level has already carried over into the WNBA with many fans tuning in to WNBA games.
Caitlin’s talent has drawn in many celebrities and other basketball players. NBA player, Lebron James mentioned Clark and others like Angel Reese when saying, “The star power that we have in the women’s game outweighs some of the men”. NBA Hall of Famer, Magic Johnson tweeted out congratulating her on her accomplishments and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said “She is one of the best players to ever play..”. There has also been comparison between Clark and pop superstar Taylor Swift, since in the past year they have both had huge impacts on the sports community. Swift drastically increased the viewership of the NFL this past season and helped the NFL make 331.5 million dollars, all due to her presence at the Chiefs game. As mentioned before Clark has done similar things to Swift, in both increasing viewership and upping ticket prices.
Clark has proven she truly is a GOAT and to solidify that, Iowa announced at their end of the year celebration that they will retire her number. It is safe to say that Clark has impacted women’s basketball forever and has earned the phrase “The Caitlin Clark Effect”.
