Caitlin Clark

The NCAA women’s big championship game takes place on Sunday. A lot of people will tune in – a ton more, in fact, than have historically given women’s basketball the time of day. This year, the Athletic reports, “Heading into the Final Four, all games have averaged 967,000 viewers, up 47 percent from 2023.” Television networks can thank “the Caitlin Clark effect” for these remarkable viewership numbers. And girl dads and moms across the country should be thanking Caitlin Clark for putting women’s sports on the map and inspiring more youth sports participation, the benefits of which extend beyond physical health to include increased emotional, mental and social wellbeing.

Over the past two weeks, one of the biggest culture war conversations in America has had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump, Joe Biden or the 2024 elections. Instead, it’s centered on, of all things, the WNBA.  The discourse around Caitlin Clark, the Iowa phenom who won rookie of the month in May, has run the gamut of everything wrong with how we argue today — injecting racism, sexism, talk of “pretty privilege” and allegations of “assault” for hard fouls. Most non-sports commentators writing and discussing Clark’s controversial entry into the pros have never had an opinion about basketball until five minutes ago, but no matter — let a thousand takes bloom about a hotshot rookie on a bottom-feeding team.