NCAA March Madness 2024
A funny thing happened this year as the NCAA women's tournament is drawing larger ratings than the men's tournament. At the end of the day, Madison Avenue steps up and says, “Who's getting the eyeballs to sell commercials?” and that's the women's tournament.
There are a handful of reasons that the NCAA women's tournament is getting incredible ratings this year and it all comes down to the star players: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith. These young women are all tall, athletic phenom basketball players — and that sells on Madison Avenue. Don't worry, all these women have marketing teams behind them to cash in on their NIL (Name, Image, Likeness), where the NCAA allows amateur athletes to cash in on their star power. Caitlin Clark has 11 known marketing deals, including Nike, that pay her an estimated $3.1 million as a senior in college.
Hailey Van Lith has a great story. After practicing for two hours with her high school basketball team, she would go home and eat dinner. Then the real workouts began as her father would work her out for an additional two hours every night. Interesting fact: Kobe Bryant heard about her work ethic and met with Hailey and her father as Kobe wanted Hailey to be an athletic role model to his daughter Gianna. Since her father was taller than her, Hailey had to learn how to dribble and shoot. Van Lith was one of the top basketball recruits out of Washington state and the state's alltime leading scorer. She played three years at Louisville before transferring to LSU this year.
Paige Bueckers was the No. 1 basketball recruit in 2020 and attended UConn. She was the Player of the Year as a freshman and led UConn to the Final Four. During her sophomore year, she had injuries and still led her team to the national championship game, where they lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks. She missed her entire junior season with a torn ACL. This year, she led her team to the Final Four to face Caitlin Clark and Iowa. The UConn Huskies have the most successful NCAA women's basketball program in the nation, having won a record 11 championships and a women's record four championships in a row, from 2013 through 2016, all with their coach Geno Auriemma, who has coached UConn since 1985. UConn also holds the record for the longest winning streak in NCAA basketball history with 111 consecutive wins.
Angel Reese is nicknamed the “Bayou Barbie” and at 6'3” she can score and hit the boards. She led LSU to the 2023 NCAA basketball championship last year over Iowa and met Iowa again in this year's Elite Eight round. She also made millions with her NIL deals.
Caitlin Clark has won the Player of the Year for the past two seasons. This year she led the nation in scoring and assists and led her team to the championship game again. Last year's championship game against LSU set an ESPN record with 9.9 million viewers. This year's rematch with LSU in the Elite Eight broke ESPN's record with 12.3 million viewers. That was more ESPN viewers than any Major League Baseball game last year, every NBA game, except Game 5 of the NBA finals and every college football game, except for the playoffs.
The most amazing thing about Caitlin Clark and Iowa wasn't they sold out almost 15,000 seats for every home game this year, it was they also sold out every road game. Where women's basketball used to draw 3,000-4,000 fans a game, when Clark came to town, suddenly they were selling 15,000 and the Ohio State game at Columbus, Ohio, sold almost 19,000 seats. Unheard of! Everyone wanted to witness the senior who bombed 3s beyond the half-court line.
This set up the rematch between Iowa and LSU in the Elite Eight game. Clark didn't disappoint, as she scored 41 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds to lead Iowa to a 94-87 victory. For LSU, Reese had 17 points along with 20 rebounds. LSU had trouble guarding Clark all game. It got so bad that after another one of Clark's long 3s, Van Lith threw up her arms as if to say, “What the hell can I do?” Iowa then defeated UConn in the Final Four setting up the NCAA women's championship game between Iowa and South Carolina today at 12 noon. Enjoy the game!