With March Madness tipping off in full today, Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark is trending towards becoming the most in-demand athlete with American audiences, according to the latest Parrot Analytics Talent Demand data.
Most In-Demand Athletes, U.S
For the first 17 days of March 2024, Caitlin Clark has been 112.63x more in-demand than the average talent with US audiences. This makes her the third most in-demand athlete, behind only LeBron James (118.7x) and Russell Wilson (115.59x) over the same time period.
During that time, Clark was the 54th most in-demand overall talent in the US across all of professions, placing her just behind actor Ryan Gosling and ahead of musician Usher.
If Iowa makes a deep run over the next three weeks in what will be Clark’s final games at the school, she should be able to take over as the most in-demand athlete with US audiences. Clark’s games have drawn record ratings to TV networks throughout the season, and boosted ticket demand and prices wherever she plays.
College Athlete Demand and NIL
Measuring the demand and reach of college athletes is more important now than ever, with NIL enabling players to monetize their success and popularity.
Caitlin Clark is not the only college basketball star trending ahead of the tournament.
LSU’s Angel Reese has been at 43.29x with US audiences so far in March, placing her in the top 0.04% of talent across all professions. On the men’s side, Purdue’s Zach Edey has been at 23.33x, placing him in the top 0.5% of all talent. Both are expected to grow in demand if they can lead their teams to the Final Four and beyond.
Parrot Analytics talent demand data tracks with these players’ respective NIL value, according to On3. Clark’s estimated value of $3.1M leads Reese’s $1.8M and Edey’s $815K. Clark is widely expected to be the first pick in next year’s WNBA Draft.
