How The Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark Publicity Is Great For Women's College Basketball: Clay Travis

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Women's college hoops ended with a bang after the widely watched (9.9 million) finale between LSU and Iowa. The March Madness championship game, featuring women's college basketball's best player Caitlin Clark, not only became a spike in popularity for the game, it produced several storylines to watch heading into next season.

On Tuesday's OutKick the Show, I discussed how the buzzing feud between Clark and LSU forward Angel Reese is GOOD publicity for women's basketball; why top players should want to play with Clark, a college hoop phenom; and how should the season tip-off next year to keep the momentum going.

Watch the full segment here:

Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese Feud Is Drawing More Eyes To Booming Women's College Hoops

The women's championship game between LSU and Iowa drew 9.9 million people.

Now, to be fair, this aired on ABC, which has relatively never occurred before for the women's championship, at least that I'm aware of. Broadcast television's biggest audience ever for a women's basketball game.

Credit the continued fallout of the Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese drama. The "You can't see me" trash talk.

Caitlyn Clark went on ESPN today and said, "I don't think Angel should be criticized at all. No matter what way it goes, she should never be criticized for what she did. I compete. She competed. It was a super, super fun game."

I think that's what's going to bring more people to our game. Again, a direct quote from Caitlyn Clark, This is great. Conflict is good. Conflict creates eyeballs.

More people because of this controversy, care about women's college basketball than have ever cared about women's college basketball before. Eyeballs equal controversy. As I've always said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity, as long as you aren't facing jail time."

Caitlin Clark is the biggest star in women's college basketball.

Iowa Should Be Transfer Hot-Spot After Caitlin Clark's March Madness Run

I don't know how active the transfer portal is in women's college basketball, but I think it's fair to say that Caitlin Clark's Iowa team is not the most talented basketball team in the country.

Caitlin Clark may be the most talented individual player, but the rest of her surrounding cast is not the most talented in college basketball. I don't think that's a radical proposition. I think most of you would agree.

Why wouldn't you want to play with Caitlin Clark in Iowa if you could? If you are a star athlete.

LSU basically remade their team through the transfer portal. If you're a star women's athlete, why wouldn't you want to play alongside of Caitlyn Clark, especially in a NIL era?

Given how many of your games would be on television and how much you could grow your personal brand. That matters a lot in women's college basketball and also, frankly, in women's basketball, because the players don't tend to make that much money.

So if you had the opportunity to go play for a team that everybody was paying attention to, why wouldn't you do it? It feels to me like an absolute no-brainer. You should 100%. If you had that opportunity, go play with Iowa.

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Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.