Imagine college basketball sensation Caitlin Clark joining the U.S. women’s team for the upcoming Paris Olympics. The winner would already be decided — NBCUniversal, which holds the broadcast rights for the games.
USA Basketball has released the names of the 14 players invited to the USABWNT training camp, scheduled for April 3-5 in Cleveland. Clark is the only college player on that list, joining WNBA and former U.S. Olympic stars such as A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner and Jewell Loyd. The women will play for their eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal at the games.
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Lindsay Schnell, who covers the women’s team for USA Today, noted Clark is “officially in play for being on the 2024 Paris Games roster.”
Given Clark’s skill set, there’s a strong case for her to earn one of the 12 spots. One could also easily make the case that there are 12 better, more deserving players. But in terms of T.V. numbers for NBCUniversal, Clark could provide a ratings bonanza (or une aubaine pour les notes, in French). The Iowa superstar has brought record ratings for the sport this season. Fox recently reported that women’s college basketball averaged more viewers than NCAA men’s games on Fox networks this season.
The network reportedly even considered offering Clark an NIL deal to try to convince her to play one more year in college.
USABWNT head coach Cheryl Reeve, from the Minnesota Lynx, will make her roster decisions based on who will help win games, but she and her staff will find it impossible to ignore talk of how Clark would boost T.V. ratings.
NBCU paid $7.65 billion for U.S. broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games between 2020 and 2032. The company experienced a ratings decline for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. However, extenuating factors were involved in that situation, with the time zone factor and the games being delayed a year by Covid.
