Speaking with Sports Illustrated in an empty Carver-Hawkeye Arena over the summer, Caitlin Clark weighed the decision that hung over her upcoming basketball season. The Iowa Hawkeyes star could make her senior year her last one in Iowa City. Or she could extend what had already been a historic, one-of-a-kind college run with a fifth and final season in 2024–25, part of the last class to have such a choice under the pandemic policy of the NCAA.
“Either I’m going to be coming back to something that I’ve really loved, or I could start my pro career, which was my dream ever since I was a little kid,” Clark said back in August, describing it as a “really, really hard decision.”
She maintained that stance publicly over the months that followed. But as the season wore on, at least from the outside, it became harder to imagine Clark staying for that extra year at Iowa. What more did she have to prove in college? As she put together another year of leading the nation in scoring, breaking records, selling out gyms, the answer seemed to be: not much. That concept was not exactly new for her. From the beginning of her freshman season, Clark stood out from the competition, scoring more than any other player in the country even then. But she commanded a different kind of attention now, a star with a singular, intense gravitational pull. The result felt obvious. It was time for the Caitlin Clark Show to play new venues.
