In the Elite Eight round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes and Angel Reese of the LSU Tigers faced off in a highly anticipated match. The game took place at the MVP Arena in Albany, New York, and was watched by more than 12 million viewers on ESPN. This game set an all-time ratings record for a women’s college basketball game on ESPN, with a peak audience of 16.1 million viewers tuning in to watch.
The game was a rematch of the 2023 national championship, where Iowa avenged its loss from last year and advanced to its second straight Final Four. Led by Caitlin Clark’s impressive 41 points, Iowa defeated LSU with a score of 94-87 to move on to the next round in Cleveland. After the loss, Angel Reese of LSU expressed her joy at being part of history and raising the profile of women’s sports.
ESPN announced that the viewership for this Elite Eight game was the highest for any basketball game since the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. The average women’s NCAA tournament game rating has increased by an astonishing 127% compared to the previous year. This success is a testament to how far women’s sports have come and how much interest there is in these games.
In the next round, Iowa will face Connecticut on Friday at 9:30 p.m., while South Carolina will take on NC State at 7 p.m.. These games promise to be just as exciting as this Elite Eight match and will no doubt continue to draw large audiences and generate buzz around women’s basketball.
