By: Hannah Larrabee-Walcutt, W*SS Graduate Intern
Photo credits: Abbie Parr, The Associated Press
Since becoming a graduate student at MSU, one of my favorite things to do outside of class and work is to watch B1G sports, mainly men’s basketball. However, with social media highlights and many messages from my friends about Caitlin Clark, I’ve gained an interest in women’s basketball as well. I know that I’m not the only one who has become more invested in women’s basketball, but it was a little bit shocking for me to read about the influence Caitlin Clark has made on the industry of collegiate women’s basketball. When you google Clark’s name, you’ll find headlines such as: “The Caitlin Clark Effect”, “Shaquille O'Neal Hails Caitlin Clark As The Best Female Collegiate Player Ever”, and “When does Caitlin Clark play next? Key dates and times for the women's NCAA March Madness tournament.” In doing some research about her influence, it was also interesting to hear Clark’s reflections about how her experience in the NCAA has evolved over the years. In an interview, she says that “when I first started this, when I was a freshman, like we couldn’t even use the March Madness branding and now to see this, really it’s just taken a whole other level” (Horn, 2024).
Caitlin Clark has broken several major records—she now holds the title of the all-time leading scorer for NCAA Division-I men’s and women’s basketball and she has surpassed Steph Curry’s record for the most three-pointers in a single NCAA Division-I season (Schlachter, 2024). Along with these great achievements, Clark has made an economic impact with an increased amount of viewership for games that she plays in, and an increase in resale ticket prices for Iowa games. In a New York Times podcast, Matt Flegenheimer notes that, “Secondary ticket prices for resale are going for $400, $500. It’s really become kind of the hottest thing in town. And celebrities are going to Iowa City to watch college basketball. And there is this really kind of breakthrough cultural power. She knows this.” He also highlighted the fact that, “The television contract for the women’s tournament valued the tournament at $65 million annually, which was a manyfold increase over the last contract.” In an article published by the NCAA called “The Caitlin Clark Effect”, McGuire shares a few staggering statistics (2024):
On average, schools that have hosted Iowa have seen an attendance increase over 150% compared with their other home games, the AP reported.
Vivid Seats released data recently showing that the top five most in-demand NCAA women’s games this year have featured Iowa, the average price of tickets for the Hawkeyes since Clark joined the team in 2020 is up 224%, and the average distance traveled by a fan to watch Iowa play is up 34% from last season.
While Caitlin Clark is a phenomenal basketball player at the collegiate level currently, we know that she has plans to enter the WNBA draft upon graduation (Kurz, 2024). In speaking about the differences in viewing between the NCAA and the WNBA, Flegenheimer highlights that while the championship game that Clark played in last year had over 9 million viewers, the WNBA championship had roughly 1 million (Tavernise, 2024). I hope that with folks following Caitlin Clark, the WNBA will gain popularity and appreciation similar to that of women’s basketball within the NCAA. And then even beyond Caitlin Clark, I hope the appreciation increases for women’s sports broadly because as Flegenheimer also noted, “There are great players throughout the college game, including Angel Reese, JuJu Watkins, who’s a freshman at USC, who are really frankly bigger stars than any men’s college basketball player right now. This doesn’t just begin and end with Caitlin.” (Tavernise, 2024).
References/To learn more:
Gordon, M. (2024, March 25). When does Caitlin Clark play next? Key dates and times for the women's NCAA March Madness tournament. CBS. https://www.cbsnews.com/essentials/when-does-caitlin-clark-play-next-key-dates-and-times-for-the-womens-ncaa-march-madness-tournament/
Horn, B. [@BlakeHornTV]. (2024, March 23). Caitlin reflects on her impact on women’s tournament [Tweet; attached video]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/BlakeHornTV/status/1771659275699429755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1771659275699429755%7Ctwgr%5Ee2cac18f5118f65081d8de93168c41a8c8b2a956%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.outkick.com%2Fsports%2Fcaitlin-clark-fans-excited-womens-tournament-mens
Kumar, V. (2024, February 17). Shaquille O'Neal hails Caitlin Clark as the best female collegiate player ever. Fadeaway World. https://fadeawayworld.net/shaquille-oneal-hails-caitlin-clark-best-female-collegiate-player-ever
Kurz Jr., H. (2024, February 29). Chasing more history: Projected No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark of Iowa declares for WNBA draft. CBC.
McGuire, C. (2024, February 15). The Caitlin Clark Effect: How Caitlin Clark has captivated the country and rewritten the NCAA record books one bucket at a time. NCAA. https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/2/15/media-center-the-caitlin-clark-effect.aspx
Schlachter, T. (2024, March 9). Caitlin Clark makes more history, surpassing Steph Curry’s three-point record. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/09/sport/caitlin-clark-history-steph-curry-three-spt-intl/index.html
Tavernise, S. (Host). (2024, March 21). The Caitlin Clark phenomenon: The Iowa basketball star is blazing a trail in women’s sports [Audio podcast]. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/podcasts/the-daily/caitlin-clark.html