"I do sit there and think – I go, ‘If I didn’t watch these games; if I didn’t watch the tournament games [or] if I didn’t watch Ohio State, would anybody really care?'"
ESPN’s coverage of the Final Four marked the most-viewed women’s national semifinals on record, garnering an average of 10.8 million viewers, which is up 138% year-over-year.
"Obviously Caitlin Clark is a very big reason for that – there’s just so much casual fan interest in her – but the viewership numbers, they don’t lie."
Borrell Associates projects that figure will climb considerably over the next four years as the industry undergoes what it describes as a "great reshuffling."