South Carolina-Iowa Set Another College Basketball Women's Ratings Mark - Yawn

All right, NCAA men's national championship game, let's see if you can match the women.

No. 1 seed South Carolina's 87-75 win over No. 1 seed Iowa in the women's national championship game Sunday afternoon in Cleveland on ABC peaked at 24 million viewers with an average of 18.7 million. Those were the highest ratings for any women's non-Olympic sporting event since the World Cup soccer final nine years ago, according to Nielsen Ratings.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley lifts the national championship trophy Sunday afternoon in Cleveland after beating Iowa. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Team USA defeated Japan in that match, 5-2, in front of 26.7 million viewers in 2015.

Women's College Basketball Must-See TV 

Despite being played in a slow viewing time - mid-afternoon of a spring Sunday - the South Carolina-Iowa game smashed the previous women's basketball TV ratings record, which was just set late last Friday night in Cleveland. Iowa beat Connecticut in the second national semifinal in front of 14.2 million viewers on average and a peak of 17 million with a 9:30 p.m. eastern tip.

That game broke the previous record, which was just last Monday when Iowa beat LSU in an NCAA Regional final at Albany, N.Y., in front of 12 million viewers. And that game broke the previous women's basketball TV ratings mark set just a year ago when LSU beat Iowa for the national title at Dallas in front of 9.9 million viewers.

Much Of Media Missed Mark, But Not OutKick

Perhaps if there was another game left in this women's basketball season, that would feature the record.

UConn And Purdue Men - You're Up

The NCAA men's national championship game will try to keep pace or beat the women's final on Monday night when No. 1 seed Connecticut meets No. 1 seed Purdue (9:20 p.m., TBS).

"Sunday's Iowa-South Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the most-viewed-ever NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament," ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. "These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways."

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark took the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship games. (Getty Images)

Iowa superstar senior point guard Caitlin Clark had been Must-See TV all season as she broke Pistol Pete Maravich's all-time scoring record last month and is expected to be the first pick of the WNBA Draft next Monday. And South Carolina completed a perfect 38-0 season after going 36-1 last year with its only loss to Iowa and Clark in a Final Four semifinal.

NCAA Women's Basketball Has Come A Long Way, Baby

"Don't want to not utilize this opportunity to thank Caitlin for what she's done for women's basketball," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said after winning her second national championship in three years and third in all. "Her shoulders were heavy and getting a lot of eyeballs on our game. She handled it with class."

Clark finished her career with 3,951 points.

"I mean, South Carolina is so good," Clark said. "There's only so much you can do. It's certainly been a special year."