A brand new ballot is declaring Iowa star Caitlin Clark the largest identify in faculty basketball — no matter gender.
In response to the 2024 Seton Corridor Sports activities Ballot, greater than 4 in 10 (44%) Individuals mentioned they’ve heard of Clark earlier than. That quantity elevated to 58% for individuals who described themselves as sports activities followers, and 68% amongst avid sports activities followers.
Moreover, when respondents got the names of 5 male and 5 feminine NCAA basketball gamers, Clark ranked first in identify recognition — greater than two occasions better than another athlete on the listing. One other lady, Louisiana State College’s Angel Reese, got here in second with 18% of Individuals saying they acknowledge her identify.
SEE MORE: Most US adults comply with ladies’s sports activities, research finds
From breaking the all-time faculty basketball scoring document, to drawing the biggest ladies’s basketball common season tv viewers of the previous 25 years, there isn’t any denying Clark’s indelible influence on faculty basketball. And with the NCAA males’s and ladies’s March Insanity tournaments tipping off Thursday, Clark’s identify alone is anticipated to draw document viewership for this yr’s ladies’s event.
In response to the ballot, almost two-thirds of sports activities followers agreed that ladies’s faculty basketball is now extra in style than ever, with almost half (48%) of the overall inhabitants and 74% of avid sports activities followers saying they’ll tune in to this yr’s ladies’s March Insanity event. These figures are up greater than 8% and seven% respectively since final yr.
“Caitlin Clark is carrying the March Insanity model this yr,” the ballot’s chief methodologist Daniel Ladik mentioned in a weblog publish. “It’s probably that viewer numbers for the Girls’s event will surpass all earlier information and her presence alone is a brand shot for the NCAA.”
The Seton Corridor Sports activities Ballot surveyed greater than 1,500 U.S. adults between March 15-18. It was carried out in partnership with Seton Corridor College’s Stillman College of Enterprise and YouGov, a world public opinion and information firm.
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