Yes, you are correct. What we saw last year was a Caitlin Clark phenomenon, not a women’s basketball phenomenon. There is/will be some benefit for women’s basketball as a whole, but most of the “boom” is about this one star. For whatever reason.
And Dawn Staley complained that Paige was getting too much press.
I don't think she said that.
I do like the TNT, TBS and TRU coverage. I can watch the game I want in its entirety instead of the network deciding which game I will be watching.The Caitlin Clark phenomenon is absolutely insane, it's been two seasons of her crushing TV #'s and it just keeps amping up. The men's TV #'s are also really good. I really wish they were putting all the games on CBS and ABC/ESPN. It makes it much harder pulling great #'s on TBS and TruTV.
We keep hearing all that matters is football, yes college football is huge but college basketball especially the tournament is a cash cow and it's still largely untapped.
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March Madness: Tournament ratings up after most-watched Elite Eight Sunday in 5 years
The Elite Eight game between NC State and Duke produced the largest audience for an Easter Sunday telecast on any network in 11 years.apnews.com
they did hype Paige, Paige was the most famous and popular freshmen that I can ever remember coming into college on the women's side. Clark built her own momentum and hype on her own, if you followed the women's game from the time both came into college Clark's rise was organic.
Give Clark her due. She deserved all the hype she got. Paige may have deserved more, but she is a pretty low key character. But it worked out in the end!
Makes no sense at all now with Football having a playoff. Before the bowl system was outside of the NCAA.
In 2023 the Elite 8 game vs Louisville and then the Final 4 game vs South Carolina were the most watched Elite 8 and Final Four games on ESPN ever(before being broken the next season by Clark/Iowa), then the title game vs LSU was the most watched title game before being broken the next season. the viewers were already there, people point to the LSU game but the Iowa vs South Carolina Final Four game was really the tipping point for everything popping off.
Dawn is a huge whiner and constantly plays the victim card. It's gotten old, and a bad look for a team that has won 50% of the last 4 NC's... In fairness, she does give props to Paige, and she did last year to Caitlyn, but OMG. Your team has made it to 5 FF's in a row. Take a day off...
It's all Clark. She played rando teams like Nebraska and other Big 10 teams who weren't going anywhere and they got a lot more eyeballs than LSU vs. South Carolina and it's carried over to the WNBA. The 16 highest rated WNBA games last season were Clark/Indiana Fever games. I live in Chicago and they have Angel Reese's face everywhere and the Chicago Sky had great attendance but it was 8,700 fans on average compared to Clark and the Indiana Fever getting 17,000 on average.
Agreed, TNT, TBS, and TRU are great for early rounds, but final four should always be on CBS.
Agreed, I remember reading articles about the ratings impact she had on the Big 10 network in the 2022-2023 season, once the main networks got on board it was a wrap. It's not "hype" to be able to pull the casual viewers in the way she has.
I'm not a Kaitlyn Clark fan, particularly, but she was knocking off one record after another. That justifiably created buzz.
The numbers don't support your statement.
the '24 game was played in the afternoon, the last 3 title games have been in that ABC Sunday afternoon slot.
I said that there had been no increase in interest in women's basketball over the past decade? Could you please show me where so that I can see if I need to see a doctor for dementia?
I think that's a better time slot than the men's national championship game. Everyone is home on Sunday afternoon lazing around the house. The men's games have always been late Monday nights (this year a little earlier) and Monday's suck.
Agreed, I kept seeing tweets on Sunday asking why the women weren't getting a primetime slot, Sunday afternoon @ 3pm EST is primetime. NFL Sunday @ 4pm is always a big national matchup, NBA has always treated Sunday @ 3:30 as a bigtime viewership window, I don't understand why the women being played at that time is seen as a negative.
She led the league in assists and was first team all WNBA as a rookie, so I'm not sure what lumps she was taking. She's an awesome player.
I can see it.
