Arguably, one of the biggest names in American sports is not a professional. Caitlin Clark, a 22-year-old from the University of Iowa (UI), has proved herself to be one of the most exciting and decorated college players in women’s basketball history. And that’s unfair to say, as categorizing her only in women’s basketball would be an understatement. Clark is rapidly revolutionizing basketball in front of our very own eyes, and she has become one of the most impactful players of the game in recent history. Nevertheless, this isn’t an entitlement that you earn overnight.
Clark has spent the last four years with the UI Hawkeyes, breaking countless National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and school records along her journey to graduating college. To list a few accolades, Clark is a Naismith Player of the Year, BIG 10 Player of the Year, and Associated Press (AP) Player of the Year. She is also the all-time scoring leader in UI history, in the BIG 10 Conference, and in women’s and men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Basketball history. She’s a 3x unanimous All-American, and an Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPYS) award winner of Best Female College Athlete. That’s just the top of the list.
What she’s accomplished during her time at UI is unheard of in college basketball. Because of this, Clark has been able to shine a national spotlight on women’s basketball that we haven’t seen before.
Colby Christiansen, a senior on the Franklin varsity men’s basketball team, is vocal about his support and praise for women’s basketball. He is aware of the lack of respect and attention that the sport gets, and points to Clark as a pioneer who has allowed fans to come to realize the high level of basketball they have been neglecting.
“Women’s basketball receives a lot of hate, regardless of how talented the players are, and people will try to bash it for what it isn’t. [Clark] has been the toughest person to hate on because there isn’t much she can’t do … The fact that she is simply the best player in college basketball right now is making a lot more people watch and talk about women’s basketball,” Christiansen says.
While she may draw all of this attention on the basketball court, Clark’s impact pushes beyond the baselines in the arena. Santul Nerkar, a writer for the New York Times, states in an article that “Caitlin Clark’s lasting impact may be economic.” In other words, wherever Caitlin goes, she makes an impact in some way.
For example, tickets to an UI Hawkeyes game have skyrocketed nearly 200% in price compared to last year’s ticket prices. According to Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), last year’s national championship game between UI and Louisiana State University racked up over 12 million viewers, a record for the highest viewership for a women’s college basketball game.
Clark announced on Feb. 29 that she would be entering the 2024 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) draft, in which the Indiana Fever will have the first pick. While nothing is official, it’s evident that Caitlin Clark will be the number one pick. I say this evidently as the “Caitlin Clark effect” has already struck Indiana, as their ticket prices have doubled for next year’s home competitions, according to StubHub. This 2024 season, women’s basketball is expected to reach new heights in global revenue and is projected to generate over one billion dollars, via The New York Times.
Cairo Machatine, the team manager for the Franklin women’s varsity basketball team, sees Clark as a heavy influence on the next generation of basketball players. However, it doesn’t stop with Clark — there are plenty of players alongside Clark who are making their own impacts. “I see both young boys and girls striving to be great with her influence,” Machatine states. “To be honest, it is not just her. [This year] women’s basketball has stars like Paige Bueckers, Juju Watkins, and all of University of South Carolina’s women’s team [have] had such a huge impact on the basketball community. This is the turning point for women’s basketball, and I’m so excited to see what the future holds.”
This year, UI bulldozed their way up to this year’s national championship game, beating notable schools like UCONN, and defending champion LSU. However, Clark and IU fell short of their dreams at a national title, falling to the University of South Carolina (USC) Gamecocks, who topped off a historic 38-0 season with a championship. USC head coach, Dawn Staley, had high praise for Clark in her post-game interview, giving her flowers to the UI opponent and acknowledging her impact on the game. “I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport … She’s gonna lift that league [WNBA] up … you are one of the GOATs [Greatest Of All Time] of our game and we appreciate you.”
It was an incredible game to end off such a special season, and a perfect ending for a tough South Carolina team. For Clark, it’s a heartbreaking way to end such an incredible collegiate career. Nevertheless, a loss does not discredit everything that was accomplished this year. Caitlin Clark, among other young superstars on the rise in women’s basketball, brought the sport to new heights this season. The sport will have an unrecognizable reputation in five years, and we will look back at the 23-24 season as a benchmark for the respect and recognition that women’s basketball has earned. Caitlin Clark will go down as one of the best collegiate basketball players in history, and the clock is only ticking for the world to see her in the WNBA.
As we wait to see what Clark’s next steps will be, she sums up what she hopes the future will hold: “I don’t want my legacy to be, ‘Oh, Caitlin won X amount of games,’ or ‘Caitlin scored X amount of points.’ I hope it’s what I was able to do for the game of women’s basketball,” said Clark in her post-game press conferences after the national title game. “I hope it’s the young boys and girls that are inspired to play this sport or dream to do whatever they want to do in their lives.”
