Photo used with permission from Google Creative Commons

Caitlin Clark ends her collegiate career with an historic impact on women’s basketball.

On Nov. 25 2020, women’s college basketball phenom Caitlin Clark stepped on the court for the first time for her freshman year at Iowa University. Now, she steps off the college court one last time with a lasting, record-breaking impact on the game of basketball that has drastically increased the popularity of women’s basketball as a whole and captivated millions.

Throughout her time as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team, Clark broke the record for most points scored ever for both men’s and women’s Division 1 basketball with 3,951 points. This surpassed Pete Maravich, who previously held the record at 3,667 points, which was set 54 years ago. Clark averaged 28.4 points per game In her four years of playing college basketball, which drew large crowds over time.

Iowa’s regular season games streaming on ESPN platforms accumulated an average of 476,000 people, which was a viewership increase of over 37%. Also, Iowa sold out the majority of their home games and played one of their pre-season games at the university’s football stadium, which was still sold out. According to ESPN, the most recent national championship game between Iowa and South Carolina reached a high of 24 million viewers and averaged out at 18.7 million viewers. This topped the men’s national championship game this year by over four million average viewers, which has never happened before, according to ESPN.

With the recent spike in women’s college basketball viewership, students are being introduced to the greatness of Caitlin Clark’s legacy. Sophomore Krish Balkee said, “I usually don’t watch women’s basketball, but since hearing about Caitlin Clark, I find myself tuning into her games regularly.”

There are students who were big fans of women’s college basketball before Clark and are pleased with the new-found popularity of the sport. Sophomore Aavs Nik said, “I’m glad to see that people are finally giving the sport the recognition that it deserves and I hope that this popularity continues to grow even with Clark going to the WNBA.”

Not only is Clark making an impact on the court, she’s also paving the way for other young women who are looking to make a living off of basketball. If you tune into some of her games, you may see her numerous State Farm, Gatorade and Xfinity commercials. These are a result of NIL deals that Clark signed due to her play on the court. Also, according to The Athletic, Clark is nearing an endorsement deal with Nike that would include her own signature shoes and could be up to eight figures.

After her illustrious career at Iowa, Clark looks forward to starting a new chapter in her game as she was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft. Within five minutes of her name being announced on that draft stage, her jerseys were sold out in all sizes, according to the Fanatics shop online. This shows the undeniable popularity and viewership that Clark will bring to the WNBA. This selection has even inspired some students to start watching the WNBA. Sophomore Maxwell Sherr said, “I’m going to start following the Fever now that Clark’s there,”

Clark will forever be remembered in the record books as one of the greats in terms of women’s sports and her professional career hasn’t even begun yet.