Women’s March Madness May Set Records, As Iowa’s Caitlin Clark Puts On A Show

Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s sophomore superstar, nearly broke her own scoring record in Carver-Hawkeye Arena Sunday afternoon, leading the #21 Hawkeyes to a victory over #6 Michigan, and a share of the Big Ten regular season championship.

The whole afternoon was truly a gem. If you’re a fan of women’s basketball, you had a chance to see some outstanding games: Louisville vs Notre Dame (the Cards walloped the Irish); #1 South Carolina (with the dominant Aliyah Boston) vs Ole Miss (Gamecocks held on for the victory, 71-57);  LSU vs Tennessee (won by LSU 57-54 ) and the game many were waiting for, Michigan vs Iowa. 15,000+ packed into Carver-Hawkeye Arena, only the second sell-out all time at Iowa and the first since 1988 when C. Vivian Stringer was coaching the Hawks.

When the two teams faced each other earlier in February in Ann Arbor, Caitlin Clark and Naz Hillmon were electric. Clark leads the nation is scoring and assists; Hillmon has over 2,000 points and 1,000 career rebounds and dominates play on both ends. Clark literally “lit up” the arena with unbelievable half court, “logo” threes. Comparisons with Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors began shortly after the game and have only grown since. Capitalizing on the moment, the Iowa social media team created an amusing narrative as to where the “new” 3-point line would need to be set for her, going as far away as downtown Iowa City.

Clark ended the day with 38 points and 11 assists, leading Iowa to a 104-80 victory and a shared title with Ohio State.

With the return of Paige Buechers to the lineup at Connecticut after an injury cost her most of the regular season, alongside the dominant play of so many other top players, 2021-22 promises to deliver an outstanding NCAA Women’s Final Four in Minneapolis. The Target Center seats 18,798 for basketball, and the question I’m wondering is—will it be big enough?

This year, over 29 women’s games have had 10,000 or more in attendance.

Only a year ago

Considering where things were this time last year, it’s a quite a turn of events for the premier women’s collegiate event. Need a refresher?

Exposing the misleading narrative that “no one cares about women’s basketball,” it only took a few Instagram and Tik Tok posts to show the disparate treatment in San Antonio between the men and the women. From no photographers hired to shoot the games in the first two rounds, to the “hurricane shelter” type meals offered to the women’s teams in a bland hotel ballroom, it became just too easy for the players, coaches and media to pick apart the false narrative woven into the fabric of the NCAA‘s thinking. As Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins wrote, “The NCAA’s handling of the women’s basketball tournament is either malpractice or malfeasance”. 

After last season, the NCAA commissioned a damaging and direct external review of the obvious inequities between the men’s and women’s tournaments, including the absurd omission of using the term “March Madness” for only the men’s post-season tournament. Among many other disparities (including different Covid tests and weight rooms), the biggest gaffe identified was an omission of massive implications. The media consultants estimated the revenues for the women’s tournament alone could generate $80 and $112 million annually, beginning in 2026. Yes, the irony is staggering.

March marks the beginning of Women’s History Month and the namesake of March Madness. As teams survive and advance to the later rounds of the tournament, keep an eye on these numbers: in 2019, 3.68 million folks tuned into the Championship game between Baylor and Notre Dame (with 20,127 watching it in person); in 2021, 4.077 million tuned in to watch the Stanford-Arizona match-up.

Minneapolis is Big Ten country. Can you imagine if Iowa, Ohio State or Michigan advances to the Final Four? The Target Center won’t be big enough. Wonder if US Bank Stadium is available?