With the 2025 WNBA season around the corner, sportsbooks have already been setting the field for this year's MVP race, with odds heavily slanted toward three early frontrunners.
Last season's Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark leads the 2025 race, with FanDuel currently placing the Indiana Fever guard at +200, followed closely by Las Vegas's three-time league MVP A'ja Wilson (+230), and Minnesota's 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier (+300).
DraftKings rates Clark similarly at +220, putting Wilson at +225 and Collier at +400.
After a blockbuster rookie season, opinions on Clark's sophomore ceiling vary, with ESPN ranking the 23-year-old as the WNBA's overall fourth-best player entering the 2025 season, trailing just Wilson, Collier, and New York's 2023 MVP and 2024 champion Breanna Stewart.
However, the media giant's own ESPN BET has Clark leading the MVP odds at +200, a likely response to bettor interest rather than analyst predictions.
Dallas's 2025 No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers is the clear favorite for this season's Rookie of the Year award, carrying -255 odds on ESPN BET despite not making the overall preseason Top 25.
There's no such thing as a sure bet, but the market is clearly mirroring fan interest, hyping up these young players before a single team takes the 2025 season's court.
WNBA star Caitlin Clark and the Fever will hit the airwaves sooner than expected this year, with multiple sources reporting that ESPN will televise a preseason game between Indiana and the Brazil national team on May 4th.
The broadcast boost will reportedly make the Fever vs. Brazil matchup the WNBA's first-ever nationally televised exhibition game, a move that comes after a 2024 preseason battle between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky earned more than two million streams — from a fan's cellphone.
WNBA teams follow in the Indiana Fever's preseason footsteps
The May matchup will mark the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year's return to Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with the Fever set to play in front of a sold-out crowd at Clark's alma mater.
Indiana isn't the only team taking a trip down memory lane this preseason, with several teams bringing exhibition games to university arenas before the 2025 WNBA season tips off on May 16th.
Two days before facing the Fever, Brazil will clash with the Sky at Chicago star Angel Reese's collegiate home of LSU — an arena also familiar to new Sky recruit Hailey Van Lith.
Also on May 2nd, Notre Dame will host legendary alums Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, and Jackie Young when the Las Vegas Aces play the Dallas Wings at South Bend's Purcell Pavilion.
Monday’s 2025 WNBA Draft scored the second-highest viewership in the event's history, with an average of 1.25 million viewers tuning into ESPN to witness the league’s newest young stars turn pro.
The broadcast peaked at 1.46 million viewers, becoming just the second-ever WNBA Draft to surpass the million-fan mark.
That rise represents a 119% increase over the 2023 edition, with Monday's live event weighing in as the night’s most popular programming among key demographics across both broadcast and cable TV.
NCAA superstars fuel enthusiasm for WNBA Draft
Interest in the WNBA Draft hit a steep peak in 2024, as an average of 2.45 million viewers watched Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark start her WNBA journey with the Indiana Fever.
This year’s iteration also offered a wealth of star power, featuring No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers as well as other 2025 Final Four standouts.
"We're just continuing to try to grow the game, expand the game, bring the viewership from the college game to the WNBA," Bueckers told reporters gathered at The Shed in Manhattan.
"I think the new wave and generation of basketball players are bringing so much to the game, but obviously off the foundation that the players before us have built," she added.
With more NCAA basketball fans following their favorites to the pros, it's now up to the WNBA to sustain that interest through the regular season — and beyond.
ESPN’s women's college basketball coverage has exploded across the broadcast giant's platforms, with regular-season viewership 3% up from last year’s record-breaking run and 41% up from 2022/23.
ESPN reports that 2024/25’s overall ratings were their highest since the 2008/09 season, with 2.9 billion minutes of live women's college basketball games consumed.
While this year’s regular-season peaks outdrew last year’s top matchups, ESPN also saw significant growth in steady viewership.
Across the 87 games the broadcaster aired, each game averaged 280,000 viewers, with a record-breaking 15 games drawing over 500,000 viewers.
Due to network partnership deals, ESPN is still missing the rights to Big Ten coverage, while the SEC continues to pull in the heaviest numbers.
Flagship channels see top women's college basketball viewership
The company's flagship networks also saw significant individual ratings growth in their NCAA women's basketball coverage. Games on ESPN drew an average of 511,000 fans, for an increase of 13% over last season's coverage on the network.
Even more, the three games the broadcaster upgraded to ABC gave the channel an average of 1.3 million viewers, for an overall increase of 120% over 2023/24 games.
ABC also the regular season's two biggest audiences.
Just one week after ESPN broke the 1 million viewer mark with then-No. 4 Texas' upset win over No. 2 South Carolina, ABC's February 16th UConn vs. South Carolina plus Texas vs. LSU shattered double-header that stat.
Then-No. 5 UConn’s 87-58 blowout of the reigning national champion Gamecocks attracted the season’s biggest audience, garnering an average of 1.8 million viewers with a peak of 2.2 million.
Texas’s 65-58 victory over the then-No. 7 Tigers snagged the 2024/25 season's second-biggest audience, peaking at 2.3 million viewers while drawing an average of 1.7 million fans.
Besides leading this season's ratings, those two blockbuster matchups registered as the third and fourth highest regular-season women's college basketball viewership in ESPN's history.
ESPN scored a pair of blockbuster wins last weekend, as Sunday’s NCAA basketball doubleheader featuring No. 5 UConn vs. No. 6 South Carolina plus No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 LSU earned the network record viewership.
First, UConn’s 87-58 blowout of the reigning national champion Gamecocks garnered an average of 1.8 million viewers with a peak of 2.2 million. Later, Texas’s 65-58 victory over the Tigers peaked at 2.3 million viewers while drawing an average of 1.7 million fans.
The back-to-back lineup became the most-watched women's basketball games across ESPN platforms this season. Even more, the matchups registered the third and fourth highest regular-season viewership in the NCAA sport in the broadcast giant's history.
Sunday’s pregame show also put up impressive numbers, becoming the most-watched regular-season Women’s College Gameday since 2010.
Notably, Sunday's doubleheader aired on the broadcast conglomerate's flagship network, ABC — placing some of the country's tops college stars into a prime national spotlight.
Fans tune in as NCAA season sprints toward March Madness
With March's postseason play fast approaching, interest in top NCAA basketball programs — and the elite stars on their rosters — continues to explode throughout the 2024/25 regular season.
ESPN’s ratings have risen accordingly, with UConn’s December upset loss to Notre Dame averaging 847,000 viewers, while South Carolina’s win over SEC rivals LSU averaged 1.56 million fans last month.
Ultimately, when major networks elevate regular-season women's college basketball games, fans consistently respond with massive viewership numbers. For ESPN, there’s nowhere to go but up, as the NCAA tournament rights-holder keeps successfully pushing college coverage.
How to watch Top 25 NCAA basketball on Thursday
With almost 260 college basketball games earning airtime across ESPN's platforms this week, 16 of the country's Top 25 teams will be featured on the broadcaster's networks before next Wednesday.
Top Thursday matchups include an SEC clash between No. 18 Alabama and hosts No. 15 Tennessee, which tips off at 6:30 PM ET and will stream live on ESPN subsidiary SECN+.
Earning a prime broadcast spot on ESPN2 is No. 11 Duke, who will host unranked Louisville at 7 PM ET.