One could call it the Midas touch with a little Caitlin Clark thrown in for good measure.
Clark, star player for Iowa, undoubtedly had a hand in getting 12.3 million viewers to watch her team go against LSU in what became the most watched women’s college basketball game in history, according to Nielsen.
The two teams duked it out in the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA tournament Monday night that was shown on ESPN.
“That makes it one of the most-viewed games in any sport other than NFL football over the past year,” according to ESPN.
Clark scored 41 points for the Hawkeyes, who lost to LSU in last year’s national championship game. The final score was 94-87. Clark also 41 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds.
She was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
The game was almost a guaranteed draw for viewers as it it Clark against LSU’s Angel Reese, who was last season’s Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
The magnitude of the game was not lost on Reese.
“I think it’s just great for the sport, just being able to be a part of history,” Reese said Monday night. “Like I said, no matter which way it went tonight, I know this was going to be a night for the ages. And just being able to be a part of history is great.”
Reese scored 17 points and had 20 rebounds before fouling out.
This game topped the previous highest viewership in women’s basketball. There were 11.84 million fans who watched the 1983 NCAA championship game between Southern California and Louisiana Tech.
ESPN reported that this was also the “most watched men’s or women’s college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience.”
In fact, this game surpassed the old records by a long shot.
According to ESPN, the 2002 women’s national championship game between UConn and Oklahoma had 5.68 million viewers.
“ESPN’s most watched men’s game was the 2008 regular-season matchup between Duke and North Carolina, which drew 5.61 million,” the outlet reported.
The North Carolina State game with Duke on Sunday was on CBS and averaged 15.1 million.
Iowa will go against UConn in Friday’s second national semifinal at the Women’s Final Four on ESPN. The winner will face either South Carolina or North Carolina State on Sunday. The national championship game will air on ABC.
This caps off a record-breaking year for Clark.
In a 17-day span from Feb. 15 to March 3, she broke Kelsey Plum’s record to become the all-time women’s NCAA Division I scoring leader, passed AIAW legend Lynette Woodard for the major college scoring record, and passed LSU legend Pete Maravich for most career points in Division I history for men and women, ESPN reported..
