The Caitlin Clark Impact has been actual for years. Now, it is formally seismic.
Forward of Friday night time’s Iowa-South Carolina recreation, there was appreciable dialogue about its record-breaking rankings potential. It was set to characteristic ladies’s school basketball’s greatest participant towards ladies’s school basketball’s greatest staff — a staff chasing perfection.
The sport’s viewership itself did break data — and have become one of the vital watched video games in ladies’s basketball historical past.
Within the wake of these large viewership numbers, focus turned towards the Nationwide Championship Recreation and the way large the rankings could be for that recreation. The sport could be on Sunday afternoon with out vital viewership competitors — and it could be on a broadcast community in ABC, rising its attain. LSU might not have had the undefeated aura that South Carolina delivered to the semifinal recreation, however the stakes — a nationwide championship — had been even greater.
The precise viewership numbers shattered even the loftiest expectations. Viewership jumped a preposterous 80% from the South Carolina recreation. Even the year-over-year change spiked from an already-impressive 72% to 103% — in different phrases, this wasn’t simply an anticipated bump for a championship, tens of millions of recent viewers had been particularly eager about seeing this recreation.
The numbers look much more spectacular with added context from a few of the hottest occasions the NCAA has to supply:
Large, unbelievable numbers.
And it stands very a lot to cause that Iowa and South Carolina delivering on the hype within the semifinal is what propelled the championship recreation rankings to their historic ranges.
It’s one factor for a recreation to have compelling storylines within the buildup. It’s one other for the sport to truly ship upon the hyped buildup. If something, the Iowa-South Carolina recreation exceeded the hype.
First, the buildup to the sport itself emphasised the truth that Iowa was a major underdog. Everybody loves an underdog. It’s a part of what makes March Insanity so compelling.
However it wasn’t simply that Iowa was an underdog. Iowa led a lot of the recreation, ratcheting up the drama and urgency of what folks might (and did) tune in to see.
It was additionally a particularly aggressive recreation, right down to the final minute. For a lot of the second half, the sport was inside two possessions — and South Carolina even had a quick lead early within the fourth quarter.
After which, in fact, Caitlin Clark performed one of the vital spectacular video games in ladies’s basketball historical past towards one of many recreation’s best-ever defenses: 41 factors and a triple-double.
Longtime followers are conversant in her emblem threes and spectacular passes, however new viewers bought their first take a look at one of the vital thrilling gamers within the historical past of girls’s basketball — and one of many brashest:
The sport itself was fairly near good. And it left its mark on the game, at a time when ladies’s basketball might quickly be capable to capitalize on its recognition — particularly with stars like Reese and Clark returning for no less than another 12 months, and the long-awaited return of famous person level guard Paige Bueckers to UConn.
The viewership numbers from this weekend appear to supply a really apparent conclusion for tv executives: ladies’s school basketball has by no means been extra common — or extra fascinating as a tv property. There needs to be a wholesome competitors to purchase rights to the ladies’s NCAA event, if and after they change into supplied individually.
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Iowa State women’s basketball star Emily Ryan released a video Thursday in which she discusses her battle with an eating disorder.
Ryan, a senior from Claflin, Kansas, has been one of the Big 12 Conference’s best point guards for the past few seasons. She was a first-team all-conference pick in 2022, and a second-team selection in 2023.
“By sharing my story, I hope to build awareness and provide hope to everyone else fighting an invisible battle,” Ryan said in the video.
Ryan said her sense of self-worth was dependent on Iowa State’s success and her individual performance. That led to increased time spent in the weight room in an effort to get stronger and faster. When Ryan didn’t see the results that she desired, she began to focus on her diet.
Ryan said the Iowa State medical staff expressed their concern about Ryan’s eating habits and what it was doing to her body. Ryan said she was in “complete denial” about having an eating disorder, but her health continued to worsen.
Ryan missed the first nine games of the 2023-24 season due to the eating disorder. When she returned, she said, “off the court I was really struggling. By the end of the season, I was physically and mentally hanging on by a thread.”
During the offseason, Ryan spent 88 days at a treatment center in Denver.
“It took a long time but I finally came to the understanding that being sick wasn’t my fault, and eating disorders are real, complex illnesses,” she said.
For resources on disordered eating, call the National Eating Disorders Helpline at 800-931-2237 or text NEDA to 741741.
It was an important date around the state for volleyball teams in Iowa, as the latest rankings were released and regional pairings in all five classes were revealed.
The two come into play once regionals reach the championship round, as the higher-ranked team will serve as the host for those games.
All five No. 1 squads remained the same, as Ankeny Centennial (Class 5A), Cedar Rapids Xavier (4A), Mount Vernon (3A), Denver (2A) and Ankeny Christian (1A) held serve.
New teams to the Top-15 include Iowa City West in 5A, Ballard in 4A, Wapsie Valley in 2A and Stanton in 1A. The entire 3A poll remained the same while Sidney made one of the biggest climbs, moving to ninth from 12th in 1A.
Regional play for 1A and 2A begins Oct. 21 with 3A, 4A and 5A starting Oct. 22. The state tournament is scheduled for Nov. 4-7 in Coralville from the Xtream Arena. Complete regional pairings can be found on Bound.
1. Ankeny Centennial; 2. Pleasant Valley; 3. Ankeny; 4. West Des Moines Dowling; 5. Indianola; 6. Waukee Northwest; 7. Cedar Falls; 8. Cedar Rapids Prairie; 9. Waukee; 10. Iowa City Liberty; 11. West Des Moines Valley; 12. Sioux City East; 13. Iowa City West; 14. Iowa City High; 15. Linn-Mar.
1. Cedar Rapids Xavier; 2. Sioux City Bishop Heelan; 3. North Scott; 4. Clear Creek-Amana; 5. Lewis Central; 6. Pella; 7. Glenwood; 8. Carlisle; 9. Marion; 10. Adel-ADM; 11. Norwalk; 12. Sergeant Bluff-Luton; 13. MOC-Floyd Valley; 14. Ballard; 15. Grinnell.
1. Mount Vernon; 2. Western Christian; 3. West Delaware; 4. Dubuque Wahlert; 5. Davenport Assumption; 6. Sioux Center; 7. Carroll Kuemper; 8. Mid-Prairie; 9. Cherokee; 10. Wilton; 11. Solon; 12. Anamosa; 13. Roland-Story; 14. Clarinda; 15. Nevada.
1. Denver; 2. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont; 3. Dyersville Beckman; 4. Dike-New Hartford; 5. Aplington-Parkersburg; 6. South Hardin; 7. Boyden-Hull; 8. Pella Christian; 9. Iowa City Regina; 10. Hinton; 11. Grundy Center; 12. Sumner-Fredericksburg; 13. Wapsie Valley; 14. West Burlington; 15. Shenandoah.
1. Ankeny Christian; 2. Holy Trinity; 3. Saint Ansgar; 4. Riverside; 5. BCLUW; 6. Janesville; 7. North Tama; 8. Don Bosco; 9. Sidney; 10. River Valley; 11. Akron-Westfield; 12. Stanton; 13. Fremont-Mills; 14. Southwest Valley; 15. Gladbrook-Reinbeck.
Week 6 of the 2024 Iowa high school football season has wrapped up, and High School on SI is continuing its weekly computer rankings for the season.
The Dowling Maroons kept their top five placing in this week’s 5A Iowa computer rankings after a thrilling 41-35 victory over Ankeny Centennial. They face a strong Urbandale team on Friday, to keep their momentum going.
The top of the 5A computer rankings stay the same this week as the Bettendorf Bulldogs take home another win, this time defeating Kennedy 33-14. The Bulldogs look forward to Friday, where they will travel to Davenport Central in hopes to hold their place in the standings.
SBLive’s formula was created using its linear algebra-based ranking algorithm inspired by the Colley Bias-Free Ranking Method. Colley’s Method was created by Wes Colley, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He devised his algorithm to help address the subjectivity and controversy regarding BCS college football selections in the 1990s and early 2000s, using a method that used no subjective variables.
Here are SBLive’s latest Iowa football computer rankings, as of Oct. 7, 2024:
CLASS 5A | CLASS 4A
CLASS 3A | CLASS 2A
CLASS 1A | CLASS A
CLASS 8 MAN
To get live updates on your phone — as well as follow your favorite teams and top games — you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App | Download Android App
— Ben Dagg | @sblivesports
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Charter will offer Peacock for free with some cable subscriptions next year
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