You might have noticed that Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes are breaking TV ratings records at the Women’s Final Four. Our friends at Hawkeyes Wire have been spreading the word about this development.
It is becoming more apparent that the powers that be at the NCAA are aware of what this means. They know they need to create a new television deal which sets the Women’s NCAA Tournament apart from other NCAA sports championships and capitalizes on the surging market value in women’s basketball.
In the midst of these changing winds and emerging forces, USC women’s basketball is on the rise. The Trojans made the Women’s NCAA Tournament this year, marking the first time the Women of Troy cracked the NCAA tourney field since 2014.
USC and coach Lindsay Gottlieb are bringing in Juju Watkins, the nation’s top-ranked recruit. If Watkins lives up to the hype, USC will have its own megawatt star to promote, someone who could become the successor to Caitlin Clark as a TV ratings magnet. Moreover, Watkins could do this in Los Angeles, a major media market.
USC’s rise would be welcome in any era at any point in time, but the Women of Troy are improving precisely when a new NCAA Tournament TV deal might be arranged, and precisely one year before the Trojans leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.
The timing could not be better for USC, which is poised to make a lot more money on women’s basketball in the next several years.
[mm-video type=video id=01gwzv5e23sxpzgw8epz playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gwzv5e23sxpzgw8epz/01gwzv5e23sxpzgw8epz-1fe7e246aa53d1a0b9d3fd34bf9bd119.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696091895]