It’s a big sporting weekend not only for the NFL, which will hold its marquee event Sunday when the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs meet in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, but also for NCAA women’s basketball, which will start the day by featuring a transcendent star’s quest for history, then highlight a showdown between elite programs and iconic coaches.
The fact there is no outward concern about being overshadowed by excessive pregame shows for the Super Bowl is a testament to how far women’s basketball has come in recent years. Viewership for last season’s WNBA Finals, for instance, increased by 36 percent over the previous year’s finals, with the Las Vegas Aces’ title-clinching victory over the New York Liberty marking the most-watched Game 4 in finals history. And college games have won head-to-head battles with the NBA twice in the last two years, with last month’s South Carolina–LSU matchup on ESPN attracting more viewers than the Eastern Conference finals rematch between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat on TNT.
Just last week, the Iowa-Maryland game averaged 1.58 million viewers in prime time to become the most-watched women’s basketball game in Fox Sports history and the second-most viewed women’s college basketball game on any network…
