The first weekend of March Madness brought thrilling games and upsets, creating unforgettable moments both inside arenas and on social media.
The Women’s March Madness has been dominating social media with big names and even bigger moments all year and in the opening rounds, engaging fans and building excitement. Here are the must-see social media rankings from the first round of the Women’s March Madness!
Starting with the women’s tournament, we ranked the 16 Sweet 16 qualifying teams by impressions from their program accounts during the opening weekend games.
Leading the pack is the Iowa Hawkeyes, with a strong social media game and performance on the court. Senior standouts Caitlin Clark had two huge games, getting #1 Seed Iowa past Holy Cross in the Round of 64 and #8 Seed West Virginia University in the Round of 32 to advance to next weekend. With an impression 29,463,125 impressions, Iowa has emerged as the top team across both the participating men’s and women’s teams in March.
Not far behind as the second top-performing program was LSU, the reigning champions hopeful for a back-to-back championship season with Junior Angel Reese and Senior transfer Hailey Van Lith, capturing fans’ attention in the opening rounds with over 17 million impressions. UConn, a powerhouse in women’s basketball continues to shine with over 11 million impressions. USC, Indiana, and South Carolina round out the top six with staggering support and impressions on social media as they head into the Sweet 16.
Looking at ALL men's and women's #MarchMadness tournament teams, these were the top teams on social media through the first two rounds 🔽
— Zoomph (@Zoomph) March 26, 2024
→ FIVE @MarchMadnessWBB teams
→ ELEVEN @MarchMadnessMBB teams
→ TOP 5: @IowaWBB, @UNC_Basketball, @LSUwbkb, @DukeMBB, @Vol_Hoops pic.twitter.com/RZSyxtL93y
With the amount of star power, anticipation, and excitement already in the women’s tournament this year, we compiled an overall Top 16 team list for both the men and women together to analyze those results and standings.
Our finding was this crossover comparison between the men’s and women’s top-performing teams highlights the shift of fandom and attention in college basketball, where women’s teams are gaining just as much, and sometimes even more recognition and support as the men’s teams.
As highlighted above, this year’s story of Caitlin Clark and Iowa not only pushed Iowa to be the top women’s team on opening weekend but across both tournaments, signaling just how many fans are tuned into Clark and her team’s journey toward a national title.
Beyond Iowa, four more women’s teams ranked in the top 16 participating March Madness teams, with some beating out multiple #1 seeds in the men’s tournament and all of them beating out the story of the opening round on the men’s side, Oakland and their 1st round upset of Kentucky.
As both tournaments continue, it will be intriguing to see how the trend evolves and if women’s basketball’s social media presence and visibility will continue to shine.
