Few athletes have as much to look forward to in 2025 as Caitlin Clark. After a remarkable 2024 in terms of individual accolades – but no collective championships, either with Iowa or the Indiana Fever – Clark enters her second WNBA season with a new head coach and the experience gained during her rookie year with the Fever. The Rookie of the Year was instrumental in the Fever’s first playoff appearance since 2016, and the team also posted its highest win total (20) since 2015. She also rewrote the record books, becoming the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader (both men and women) during her collegiate career and setting the WNBA single-season assist record (337), among many other accomplishments.
Caitlin Clark’s Take on the Transfer Portal
As the face of women’s basketball, Clark remains relevant to the game even though she is no longer involved in it. She recently criticized the transfer portal during an appearance on the New Heights podcast, calling it “insanity” and lamenting its impact on the amateur spirit of college sports. His stance is misguided, however, as the portal has empowered athletes and brought college sports closer to treating players like regular students. While Clark acknowledges the benefits of NIL contracts – arguing that athletes should have the same opportunities as other students – his criticism of the contracts seems contradictory. The treatment of student athletes has always been different, but with the NIL, the attention and fame these students generate now creates a very different treatment for the rest of the students.
The NCAA’s modernized policies allow athletes the freedom to transfer schools without restrictions, much like non-athlete students, which has boosted the visibility and growth of sports, particularly women’s basketball. Far from harming college athletics, both the transfer portal and the NIL contracts have led to record-breaking attendance and increased exposure for women’s sports, benefiting stars like Clark and her peers. The professionalization of college sports has brought not only financial success but increased exposure for underrepresented sports, from basketball to softball, with NIL at the forefront of this transformation.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that the NIL is legally very new, which is why it has generated so much controversy in its first few years. As time goes on, these types of situations with the transfer portal will become very common in the future and will undoubtedly be a beneficial change for college sports.
This upcoming season, which won’t begin until May, Clark and the Indiana Fever will have a new head coach in Stephanie White. White was the head coach the last time the Fever reached the Finals in 2016 and was also the WNBA Coach of the Year in 2023. Clark’s influence was a major factor in the WNBA’s record-breaking 2024 season, which set new highs in television ratings, attendance, merchandise sales and more. For now, we can sit back and let her continue to amaze us, and remember that she is only 22.
Read the full article here
