Women’s basketball is not growing naturally because of the excessively concentrated emphasis on Caitlin Clark.
Caitlin Clark, the senior guard for the Iowa women’s basketball team, is the most recognizable player in college basketball.
This season, she leads the nation in scoring, ranks second in assists, and is quickly making her way up the record books. In a victory over Minnesota, she broke the Big Ten’s all-time assist record. As she recently overtook former Baylor standout Brittney Griner for the fourth-most points in NCAA women’s basketball history, she is also drawing nearer to the record for most points scored in the history of the sport.
Her influence is immense off the court. Attendance in the road arenas for the Hawkeyes (18-2, 7-1) increases by 150 percent when they travel. When No. 5 Iowa defeated the Rutgers women’s basketball team in front of a packed Jersey Mike’s Arena on the Livingston campus, it was evident that the Clark phenomenon was in full effect.
There’s no denying that Clark demands and merits a great deal of media attention given her celebrity and outstanding performances. The adage “There’s no such thing as negative publicity” is particularly applicable to women’s basketball, a sport that is expanding at a rapid pace.
However, the sport of women’s basketball may suffer if the national media ignores other stars in the league and concentrates only on one player.
One incident that started this discussion was on January 13, when the Hawkeyes played home to the formidable Indiana women’s basketball team. Since the two teams have developed a rivalry and have been regularly ranked in the top half of the Big Ten, the game was scheduled to be broadcast nationwide on Fox. Prior to the primetime game, Fox College Hoops released a promotional video on X, the former name of Twitter, which featured some of Clark’s best highlights before she faced the Hoosiers (16-2, 7-1).
The video solely highlighted Clark, and fans quickly pointed out that it had nothing to do with any of the players from No. 14 Indiana, a team that finished first in the Big Ten in 2022–2023 and boasted a deadly sharpshooter in Sara Scalia and a reigning All-American in Mackenzie Holmes. It seems false to highlight only one of the many elite players in such a matchup of such high caliber.
Even when Clark was sitting on the bench in what would turn out to be an overwhelming 84-57 Iowa victory, her running stats would frequently appear on the screen during the game on Fox TV. It was another example of concentrating just on Clark, as though there weren’t nine other player on the court.
Although it makes sense for Fox to focus on Clark, doing so at the expense of other players who could win over new fans could stunt the rise in popularity of women’s basketball. An excessive concentration on a single player creates the perception that the media is more interested in showcasing this one person than the sport as a whole—the one who generates engagements and content.
Of course, this is not Clark’s fault. She has done and said all the right things while rising to prominence as a role model for young athletes around the country. The national media is primarily to fault for this, as they haven’t made an attempt to emphasize some of the game’s other stars.
For instance, the only unbeaten team in Division I, men’s or women’s, is the top-ranked South Carolina women’s basketball team. Despite becoming one of the most dominant teams in NCAA basketball, head coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks (17-0, 5-0) do not have a transcendent talent like Clark, so they do not attract much national coverage.
There exist numerous distinct narratives in each sport that merit telling. That shouldn’t apply to collegiate women’s basketball teams. Every athlete should receive some sort of acknowledgment for their work as the game becomes more and more popular.
Does this imply that we should cease covering Clark entirely? Naturally, no. The easiest way to address this problem is to support other celebrities in addition to Clark, which will introduce new audiences to a variety of groups and celebrities that they may not have been familiar with before. That’s how a sport becomes naturally popular with the general public.
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