Women’s college basketball may not replicate the viewership drawn by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese last year—but their effects are seen all over this year’s ratings.
The Big Ten tournament final between archrivals UCLA and USC averaged 1.44 million viewers Sunday on CBS, the second-most-watched iteration of the title game behind last year’s game featuring Clark and Iowa against Nebraska, which drew 3.02 million, according to Sports Media Watch.
South Carolina and Texas averaged 1.3 million viewers Sunday on ESPN, which was also the second-most-watched SEC championship game behind only last year’s battle between the Gamecocks and the Reese-led LSU Tigers that drew 2 million viewers.
The year-over-year dips for the title games are stark (Big Ten down 52%, SEC down 35%), which shows the power that the two stars brought last year. But the numbers are still well above their 2023 versions (Big Ten up 93%, SEC up 50%), indicating the staying power from last year.
ESPN also announced Tuesday that the ACC tournament title game between Duke and NC State drew 833,000 viewers, while the Big 12 final, a nail-biter between TCU and Baylor, drew 759,000—both of which are viewership records. The ACC tournament final is up 23% from last year, while the Big 12 final was up 126%, per Sports Media Watch.
The results come after ESPN announced earlier this week that it averaged 280,000 viewers across 87 regular-season women’s college basketball games this season, a 3% increase over last year and its highest since the 2008–2009 season.
Slightly less impressive was the Big East tournament final Monday that featured the Paige Bueckers–led UConn triumph over Creighton. The game drew 492,000 viewers on FS1, still the second-most-watched version of the event since it moved to Fox networks, but not as high as the potential draw of a name like Bueckers, who has starred in the two most-watched NCAA women’s basketball games of the season.
