There was concern that attendance and total curiosity in ladies’s school basketball would drop this yr with the departure of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and different stars for the WNBA.
Each took a dip — however solely a dip.
With JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers and a number of different standout gamers main the way in which, attendance throughout the nation was simply in need of final season’s document numbers in ladies’s hoops and nonetheless the second-highest ever.
Extra networks confirmed extra video games on TV this season and scores had been sturdy heading into March Madness that begins this week. ESPN could have the lion’s share of event video games once more, however Fox elevated its footprint within the sport with 5 video games in primetime on Saturday nights and 18 complete on the community.
“There are nice stars, nice manufacturers, we’ve executed greater than we have now executed earlier than and we’re not alone in doing that,” Fox Sports activities President of Insights and Analytics Mike Mulvihill mentioned. “The three-5-10 yr development clearly is an upward development.”
Whereas the community’s total scores are down from final season’s document mark that was due largely to Clark being on Fox so much, Mulvihill is pleased with the place they’re.
“To go from zero exposures a number of years in the past to 18 on our greatest platform speaks to the expansion and curiosity within the sport,” he mentioned. “There’s rising confidence on this constructing that we will put it on broadcast and justify it. I like that we’re capable of put video games on in primetime. It means one thing to the coaches and gamers.”
Having nice matchups helps. The sport between Watkins’ USC and Bueckers’ UConn on Dec. 21 was proven in primetime after an NFL recreation and averaged 2.2 million viewers, peaking at almost 3.8 million. That was the second-most watched ladies’s recreation on the community behind solely Clark’s recreation final yr when she set the NCAA scoring document.
The community additionally helped spearhead two new tournaments this yr with the Champions Classic and the Coretta Scott King Invitational. Each had been renewed for subsequent season.
CBS confirmed the third matchup of the season between UCLA and USC, two of the highest groups within the nation, within the Massive Ten title recreation and it drew 1.44 million viewers, trailing solely final season’s league championship which noticed Clark and Iowa win.
ESPN had massive numbers with regular-season scores up 3% from final yr and 41% from two seasons in the past. This was essentially the most watched yr for the community earlier than the NCAAs since 2008-09 (the community did not have a lot of Clark’s regular-season video games at Iowa final season).
A doubleheader on Feb. 16 was big for ESPN: UConn vs. South Carolina drew 1.8 million viewers whereas LSU vs. Texas had 1.7 million. In all, 15 video games on ESPN networks averaged over 500,000 viewers, essentially the most in a single yr.
ESPN, which owns the rights to the NCAA Match and exhibits ladies’s video games each week through the season, has religion that March Insanity will ship.
Girls’s basketball programming director Dan Margulis is aware of that the community had an ideal storm final season to realize the document scores that noticed the ladies’s championship recreation outdraw the men. Clark, a generational participant, had guided Iowa again to the championship recreation the place they had been dealing with an undefeated South Carolina workforce searching for its personal place in historical past.
“We’re early rounds and every part rising going into it,” Margulis mentioned. “In comparison with two years in the past, we see that development.”
It wasn’t simply the championship recreation that drew big numbers. A rematch between Reese and Clark within the Elite Eight recreation was large as properly.
“Actually the ground has risen dramatically,” mentioned lead ESPN announcer Rebecca Lobo. “The expectation for this yr’s event, Remaining 4 or nationwide championship shouldn’t be what we noticed a yr in the past. Will or not it’s higher than pre-Caitlin? That flooring needs to be a lot larger than it was.”
Whereas there is not an undefeated workforce this yr or a generational participant like Clark on her final run, there’s extra parity within the sport.
Individuals aren’t simply watching on TV, but additionally displaying up at video games. The facility conferences had sturdy attendance marks. The SEC led the way in which, setting quite a few convention information, together with complete for its event and the mark in each the semis and the finals.
The Massive Ten had its second-highest common attendance within the final 15 years.
“Granted we get to see among the greatest ones, however the vitality was totally different all through the nation,” Lobo mentioned. “The South Carolina-LSU recreation on a Thursday evening with 2,500 college students has a unique vitality. The rise from college students throughout the nation has made for unbelievable environments.”
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