This isn’t a controversial statement or a hot take. It’s just data: The most popular college basketball player in America is Caitlin Clark.
Viewership for games involving the Iowa guard has been extraordinary over the past 12 months, including the 9.9 million viewers — a women’s college basketball record — who watched LSU defeat the Hawkeyes last April in the title game on ABC. Iowa’s 93-83 win over Ohio State on March 3 averaged 3.39 million viewers on Fox, the second most-watched college basketball game this season regardless of gender, per Sports Media Watch, behind only a Michigan State–Arizona men’s game on Thanksgiving that had a direct lead-in from the NFL.
The most-watched Duke–North Carolina men’s game — long the standard bearer for regular-season college basketball ratings — this season got 3.2 million viewers. Per Michael Mulvihill, the president of insight and analytics at Fox Sports, women’s basketball games on Fox had averaged 981,000 viewers as of March 5, compared with 946,000 viewers for the men.
This year’s men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments will be fascinating for many reasons, including a multitude of stars across women’s basketball, the South Carolina women’s team going for an undefeated season, Ian Eagle moving into the…
