Women’s Excellence in College Basketball
Cover Art by Abigail seguin
How the Four Horsewomen (Caitlyn Clark, Angel Reese, Juju Watkins, and Paige Bueckers) of the Women's March Madness College Basketball Tournament Have Become Top N.I.L. Earners, Household Names, and Have Grown the Popularity of Women's College Basketball.
The growth in popularity of Women’s College Basketball has been reaching new levels over the past few years, but this year's Women’s College Basketball Tournament is the biggest it has ever been. With more viewers and more visibility in the news and on social media the women’s teams are becoming more and more seen and rightfully so. The women's tournament is just as competitive as the men's tournament. At times more so and they are playing for the exact same stakes, to be able to call themselves National Champions. Last year's National Championship was the largest it has ever been with an average of 9.92 million viewers peaking at 12.6 million viewers to watch Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark play against LSU’s Angel Reese. This year's elite eight matchup was a rematch of the two aforementioned teams. The game on Monday April 2nd, shattered the previous record with an average of 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16.1 million viewers, according to ESPN. For some perspective, that average is more than the 2023 NBA Finals, the 2023 World Series, the 2023 Big Ten Championship, and every 2023 college football regular season game except Michigan vs. Ohio State. The other elite eight game on Monday night featuring USC and Juju Watkins playing against Connecticut and Paige Bueckers averaged 6.7 million viewers and peaked at 10.4 million viewers. Demonstrating the growth seen across the sport, especially as the televised games show the major figures of the sport with the anticipation for this year's Women’s Final Four growing by the day.
Now some of the biggest Name, Image, and Likeness (N.I.L) earners are coming from womens basketball. When it comes to the top 10 N.I.L earners in all of college sports, from women’s basketball there a couple big names, at number 8 LSU’s Angel Reese’s N.I.L valuation is approximately 1.8 million dollars, and at number 4 is Caitlyn Clark with a valuation of 3.1 million dollars. Also, almost making the list is Flau'Jae Johnson who has an N.I.L valuation of 1.1 million dollars. With many more major names in women’s college basketball following suit, earning undisclosed amounts, but racking up over a million followers on social media. Names such as the previously mentioned Paige Bueckers and Juju Watkins, as well as, University of Miami’s Hailey Cavinder, LSU’s Hailey Van Lith, and Arizona’s Jada Williams.
When it comes to the larger effects of the growing popularity of women's college basketball, the NCAA struck a new television rights deal for 920 million dollars over the next eight years. This is an increase of over 300% per year in comparison to the previous television rights deal. The increase in popularity also correlates to an increase in sponsorship and sponsorship rights costs. Additionally, ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, which is one the most participated in sport related public challenges in the world, that challenges participants to make the correct picks to build a perfect bracket, saw over three millions entries for the Women’s Bracket. This is up to double the number seen in 2022 according to Forbes which was roughly 1.5 million entries.
This increase in popularity amongst women’s college basketball and women’s college basketball players has been a large attributor to the growth in women’s college sports overall. This is less of market disruption in the sporting world, but an eruption of incredible opportunity for women in sports.
References
https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-money-nil-clark-reese-aef40fcab14cfe700720efe740682363
https://theathletic.com/5386550/2024/04/02/womens-basketball-elite-eight-ratings/#:~:text=UConn's%20win%20over%20USC%20in,peaked%20at%2010.4%20million%20viewers.
https://whyy.org/articles/ncaa-new-920-million-8-year-deal-with-espn-womens-march-madness/:~:text=The%20NCAA%20and%20ESPN%20announced,of%20undervaluing%20in%20the%20past.