NCAA women’s title game sets new ratings record, capping historic run

A historic season in women’s college basketball ended with one more record-breaking telecast. Sunday’s victory by South Carolina over Iowa for the national championship set a viewership record for women’s basketball with 18.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s basketball game ever.

The game, anchored by transcendent Iowa star Caitlin Clark and the undefeated Gamecocks, peaked with 24 million viewers, ESPN said, citing data from Nielsen.

Sunday’s game surpassed the Final Four matchup between Iowa and Connecticut (14.2 million viewers). The Elite Eight game between Iowa and LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers, a then-record that lasted less than a week. (Changes in how Nielsen counts out of home viewing in bars in restaurants has caused total viewership to increase in all sports in recent years.)

The entire season was a watershed for the women’s game just two years after the NCAA tournament drew headlines for the disparities in the facilities between the men’s tournament and the women’s.

Since then, Clark has soared to national attention, while a coterie of other stars - including Kamilla Cardoso of South Carolina, Paige Bueckers at Connecticut and USC’s Juju Watkins - are as big, if not bigger, than anyone in the men’s college game.

The women’s tournament now uses “March Madness” branding like the men’s tournament. Earlier this year, the NCAA signed a new TV deal with ESPN that valued the women’s tournament at $65 million, around a 10-fold increase over the previous deal. The NCAA may soon start awarding financial bonuses for advancing in the women’s tournament, as it has done for years on the men’s side. (The deal takes effect next year.)

Iowa opened the season playing a game at the school’s football stadium that drew more than 50,000 fans before Clark became college basketball’s all-time leading scorer, selling out arenas across the country along the way. “Saturday Night Live” opened the show last weekend with a skit that highlighted the interest in the women’s game and featured a spoof of LSU coach Kim Mulkey, among the surest signs that the sport has become a force in popular culture. And the top games during this year’s tournament routinely drew more viewers than playoff games from the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.

Appearing on ESPN’s morning program “Get Up!” on Monday, analysts Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike wore T-shirts that read, “Everyone watches women’s sports.”

“It was epic for women’s sports because when there were the most eyes on the game, the players continuously delivered with their performances,” Carter said. “It grew and it expanded and people fell in love with it. Every time there was a moment, whether it was Caitlin, whether it was South Carolina, whether it was Hannah Hidalgo or Juju [Watkins]. Every time there was a moment - Paige Bueckers - the players delivered. They didn’t let one moment slip.”