America couldn’t take their eyes off of women’s college basketball.

The 2024 Women’s NCAA Championship Game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks on April 7 was the most watched women’s basketball title game in history according to Data released by Nielsen on April 9.

Nearly 19 million viewers tuned in to the matchup, with its peak audience reaching over 24 million viewers during the games final minutes.

The game was won by the South Carolina Gamecocks 87-75, to give U.S.C. their second national title in the last three years.

Diana Koval is the Assistant Athletic Director, focusing on Communications and Public Relations with South Carolina’s women’s hoops squad and she said that it was a once in a lifetime experience.

“It was incredible,” Koval said. “It was a little bit overshadowed with the other storylines that were going on within the game, which is fine. Rising waters lift all boats as they say, and there’s enough room for everybody in women’s basketball to get some shine. They don’t have to take any shine from somebody else to give it to another platform.”

“It was a little bit overshadowed with the other storylines that were going on within the game, which is fine. Rising waters lift all boats as they say, and there’s enough room for everybody in women’s basketball to get some shine.”

Diana Koval

The national championship game was also the most watched basketball game at any level since 2019. Koval adds that it’s been great to see national eyes on Columbia, South Carolina, and the game as a whole.

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“It’s been nice to see media outlets try and give exposure to women’s basketball,” Koval said. “It’s been great at the grassroots level to see journalists make their own websites to try and bring more attention to women’s basketball overall.”

If women’s basketball this season was an extravaganza that was felt nationwide, Northeast Ohio could very well be the epicenter of this craze.

The city of Cleveland hosted the Final Four as RocketMortgage FieldHouse was the site for the game’s biggest matchups of the year.

Monica Gustin is the executive director of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and she was pleased with the fact that three quality games were played inside the city.

“It wasn’t a case of ‘Oh, I hope this team makes it or we hope this team makes it. Between the teams that make women’s basketball great, it’s always been great, but with the way it was now, there was no losing,” said Gustin. “All of the competition throughout the year has been fantastic. We could just feel this storm brewing and our community rose to the occasion.

Not only was this past year’s Final Four hosted in Cleveland, but a team from the area made it to the big dance in the Kent State Golden Flashes, as they played in the tournament for the first time since 2002.

Todd Starkey is the head coach for Kent State, as he made the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight seasons leading the Golden Flashes and he felt the popularity of the sport within his own team over the last few years, especially with a trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to face the defending national champion LSU Tigers on November 14.

“We experienced it in a firsthand way from going to places like LSU,” Starkey said. “And the way social media has talked about that team, created a different type of buzz than I think our players were used to.”

Cleveland saw the positive ripple effect that came with hosting the Final Four during a time where women’s college basketball reached heights that have never been seen. 18,300 people attended the title game. A big reason why women’s basketball was in the spotlight was because many athletes across the sport in the 2023-24 season shined bright.

The most notable being Caitlin Clark of the University of Iowa. The shooting guard broke multiple records this past year, such as the most points and three pointers made in the history of Division I basketball.

There were also the three-headed monster of the LSU Tigers with Angel Reese leading the Bayou Bengals, shooting guard Flau’Jae Johnson, who was named second-team All SEC this past year, and Hailey Van Lith, as the point guard have made highlight reel plays seemingly any given night.

Starkey said that he realized that those cast of characters stuck with people, and was a big reason why so many people got invested into the game.

“The best players are staying in college basketball for that full four years, as opposed to the men’s side of things, a lot of their best players are leaving early for the NBA or the G-League,” Starkey said. It creates a level of continuity and allows fanbases to really hone in on knowing their team.

“The best players are staying in college basketball for that full four years, as opposed to the men’s side of things, a lot of their best players are leaving early for the NBA or the G-League.”

Todd Starkey

The city of Cleveland was granted the Women’s Final Four in 2024 back in 2020, so when it was announced that the 2-1-6 would be hosting the games, Gustin and her team knew the responsibility that was felt with hosting the best athletes in the sport, and relied on those around her from other organizations to make it the best that it can be.

“There was so much interest from our partners at city hall, but also from our cohosts, the Mid-American Conference and RocketMortgage FieldHouse,” Gustin said. “We are really grateful that they were able to step up to the plate and help us out with hosting those matchups.”

“We are really grateful that they (The Mid-American Conference and RocketMortgage FieldHouse) were able to step up to the plate and help us out with hosting those matchups.”

Monica Gustin

With Starkey signing a contract extension earlier in April that will go through the 2029-30 season, he says that going forward, a plan to try and consist the level of popularity that they have seen is in the back of his mine.

“We want to try and carry the momentum forward as it has been created,” Starkey said. “This WNBA Draft class has really helped move the game forward, so who are going to be the next wave of stars to keep it alive? There’s Paige Buckers, Juju Watkins, Hannah Hidalgo, who we just played at Notre Dame, so we hope for them to carry the baton and for that to remain the case in terms of women’s college basketball having the popularity it does now.”

When it comes to the popularity levels that women’s college hoops has reached, some people saw this coming, where others thought it would only be a matter of time before the ratings would reach the numbers that have been reached this past year. Koval feels the latter.

“There are a ton of people that have become women’s college basketball fans because they have seen highlights and clips on social media and the decision makers over at ESPN decided to make a huge investment in promoting women’s basketball across all parts of their network, from SportsCenter to the talk shows,” said Koval. “So they made the conscious decision to put women’s basketball in that space, and a lot of people who didn’t realize how awesome and dynamic the game is, realize it now.”

As in terms for what’s next for the state of women’s college basketball, Starkey feels like it’s in good hands.

“If we continue to move the bar forward, I think it’s not a matter of ‘Where can we go?’, but it’s more, ‘We reached a really healthy place. Can we continue to maintain that and not lose ourselves?’ Sometimes, I think it’s easy to lose the magic that you have, and so I think if we can strike that balance, that means we put ourselves in a really good space.”