Who You Should Root for in the Final Four (Not UConn)

It is unlikely that the women’s college-basketball national championship game will get better TV ratings than the men’s version. But the fact that it’s even a possibility is truly remarkable.

Last year, the dull men’s final between Connecticut and San Diego State yielded an average of 14.7 million viewers, a record low, while the women’s final between Angel Reese’s LSU and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa reached 9.9 million viewers, a record high. On Monday, Reese and Clark squared off in a tournament rematch, this time in the quarterfinals. 12.3 million people watched Clark lead Iowa to a convincing victory, a number that shattered the all-time record for any women’s game and compared favorably to the 2023 World Series and NBA finals. If Clark ends up facing Dawn Staley’s undefeated South Carolina for the championship, the women might surpass the men for the first time. And if it doesn’t happen this year, it will soon.

Regardless of the ratings — and I’ll admit that they’re a sad, corporatist way to think about sports fandom anyway — Caitlin Clark is the gateway drug for casual sports fans paying attention to the NCAA tournaments. The further she goes, the more people are going to watch. A lot of people in your life will be paying attention to college basketball this coming weekend, and she’s the primary reason why. So if you want to know what’s going on, and more importantly who to cheer for, now’s the time to brush up.

We usually do a Sweet Sixteen Rootability Rankings, but we were very busy with Shohei Othani last week. So hopefully this will suffice: Here are our men’s and women’s Final Four Rootability Rankings.