There may not be a hotter ticket in sports this weekend than the Iowa Hawkeyes. They punched their ticket to their second National Championship in a row and are looking to upset the undefeated No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks.
Iowa’s exciting victory over the UConn Huskies in the Final Four has the Hawkeyes getting a second chance at etching their name into women’s college basketball history forever. When tipoff comes Sunday, not only will the stadium be filled, but it may set untouchable records for the ratings and potentially outdraw the men’s title game as some TV experts believe.
Front Office Sports spoke to TV ratings expert Douglas Pucci and he believes that Iowa and South Carolina both advancing has set up a dream scenario views as it has the biggest star in Caitlin Clark trying to get the elusive title going up against the undefeated machine of South Carolina.
If Clark advances, a dream title game matchup between Iowa and unbeaten South Carolina would pull more than 16 million viewers, Pucci predicts, perhaps even outdrawing the men’s championship. – Michael McCarthy, Front Office Sports
If this prediction holds true, it would shatter every record for women’s basketball and likely set this number at an untouchable place. It would also be higher ratings than what the men’s game last year saw, which was 14.69 million viewers.
The women’s title game also the advantage of airing at a much more fan-friendly time on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. CT while the men’s is on a Monday night at 8:20 p.m. CT.
Whichever way you cut it, Iowa and South Carolina are poised to be playing in front of millions come Sunday. This game should set records for viewership and continuing catapulting the women’s game into a new stratosphere of fandom, viewership, and hype.
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