Issue Caitlin Clark - The Future of Basketball

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Caitlin Clark - The Future of Basketball

When Caitlin Clark scored 41 points to help Iowa upset defending national champion and previously undefeated South Carolina in the 2023 Final Four, ESPN averaged 5.5 million viewers for the game. It was a record for a national semifinal. Iowa lost to LSU in the championship, but the game registered 9.9 million viewers. Another record. Eight months after the 2023 tournament, the NCAA announced a new media rights deal with ESPN for sports including women’s basketball. The NCAA president said the deal pegged the worth of women’s basketball at $65 million per year —10 times the value of the current contract that ends in 2024. Thank you, Caitlin Clark. Another example of how big of a game-changer she was came early in the 2023-24 season. Iowa staged an exhibition against DePaul at the Hawkeyes football stadium. The event dubbed “Crossover At Kinnick” pulled in 55,646 fans. The previous attendance record in women’s basketball was 29,619 for the 2002 NCAA title game between UConn and Oklahoma at the Alamodome in San Antonio. In 2021, after years of legal turbulence, college athletes were allowed to earn money for their name, image and likeness. Clark was the right player at the right moment to capitalize on opportunities with blue-chip brands including Nike, Gatorade, Bose, State Farm and Buick. In Caitlin Clark: The Future of Basketball, we follow the evolution of how a women’s basketball player from West Des Moines, Iowa, became a national phenomenon.

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IN THIS ISSUETHECAITLIN CLARK EFFECTCaitlin Clark had become such a big star, with appeal way beyond basketball, that she was invited on ManningCast, an ESPN alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football featuring former Super Bowl champions Eli and Peyton Manning. Clark appeared on the seventh show of the 2023 season. Non-NFL guests in previous weeks had included Will Ferrell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiffany Haddish, Jimmy Kimmel and John McEnroe. The show with Clark posted the highest ratings of the season to that point. Among the topics covered was how the Iowa State Fair had displayed a butter sculpture of her in action. “That’s up there with the best of ’em,” Clark said. “If you’re from Iowa, everyone knows being sculpted out of butter is one of the top things. You go to the Iowa State…7 min

IN THIS ISSUEFROM WEST DES MOINES…CaitlinClark’s first opponents were her brothers. Some might call them playmates, but even at a young age Clark meant business. It didn’t matter if she and younger brother, Colin, were only shooting at a Nerf basketball hoop in the basem*nt of their home in West Des Moines, Iowa. “I just threw him into the wall,” Clark recalled to the Associated Press in February 2024. “He went flying and his head slapped into it. He put his hand back and it was just full of blood.” Colin needed four staples to close the wound, but no hard feelings. “I’ll never forget all the blood, sweat and tears we shed together,” Colin said in a video tribute after his consistently competitive sister broke the NCAA women’s scoring record. Older brother Blake, who…5 min

IN THIS ISSUETOP OF THE LISTNo one could have scripted it any better. At least Caitlin Clark didn’t think so on the night she broke the NCAA women’s scoring record. Seven points shy of Kelsey Plum’s 3,527 going into Iowa’s matchup with Michigan on Feb. 15, 2024, Clark scored her first basket nine seconds into the game. Thirty seconds later, swish! Her first 3-pointer. And barely past the two minute mark, Clark found her sweet spot. It’s called the Logo 3 because it’s as far back as the mid-court emblem. As the ball fell through the net, taking the old record with it, Clark guaranteed she’d be part of the conversation about women’s college basketball from now on. “Obviously, getting this record was tremendous and has to be celebrated,” said Clark, who scored a school-record…8 min

IN THIS ISSUEONE NIGHT IN ANN ARBORShe was living up to the hype. Ranked the No. 4 recruit in the nation, Clark posted 27 points in her first college game at Iowa and led the NCAA in scoring as a freshman. Early in her sophom*ore season of 2021-22, Clark became the first Division I player (men or women) with consecutive 30-point triple-doubles. The momentum was building. Then on Feb. 6, 2022, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Clark erupted for 46 points. She did it in spectacular fashion with shots launched from near the midcourt line. This game became the tipping point as she moved into the greater consciousness of sports fans. One of those fans happened to be Jimmy Donaldson, a media personality better known as MrBeast, the world’s biggest YouTube star with what seems like a…4 min

IN THIS ISSUETHE MAGIC OF MARCHCaitlin Clark is as good as her word. As soon as she committed to Iowa, Clark talked about playing in the Final Four. Never mind that the Hawkeyes had been there only once — in 1993 — and made it to the Elite Eight on just one occasion since. “When I came here I said I wanted to take this program to the Final Four,” Clark said, “and all you’ve got to do is dream… and believe. And work your butt off to get there.” That’s just what Iowa did in 2023 with Clark achieving supernova stature thanks to two 41-point performances, an unprecedented triple-double and a flash of bravado that went viral in a nanosecond. Ranked No. 3 in the country, the Hawkeyes were determined to avoid a repeat…6 min

IN THIS ISSUEHOOPS PIONEERSAbout 100 years ago, they tried to cancel girls' high school basketball in Iowa. The reason given was that the sport was supposedly “too strenuous” for girls. This was the justification from superintendents and principals at the 1925 Iowa State Teachers’ Convention held at the Central Presbyterian Church in Des Moines. But one superintendent, John W. Agans, argued to let the girls keep playing. “Gentlemen, if you attempt to do away with girls’ basketball in Iowa, you’ll be standing at the center of the track when the train runs over you,” Agans said. Agans’ words inspired a group of 25 administrators — all men and mostly from rural districts — to meet and find an alternative. If the Iowa High School Athletic Association wasn’t going to sponsor girls’ basketball anymore,…4 min

Issue Caitlin Clark - The Future of Basketball - Caitlin Clark (2024)

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