South Carolina’s women’s basketball team could help women’s college basketball explode in terms of television ratings in the NCAA Tournament.

In what’s been called ‘The Dawn Staley Effect,’ the South Carolina Gamecocks have become a prominent program in the sport of women’s college basketball.

In the last four to five years, with South Carolina becoming the standard in the sport essentially, we now have something called ‘The South Carolina Effect,’ where any big games they play automatically draw more eyeballs due to the ‘FAMS’ in the Gamecocks fanbase, and general women’s college basketball fans who know how good the program is.

That effect could be even more profound in this year’s NCAA Tournament for a few different reasons, starting with the history Carolina is chasing.

If Staley and the Gamecocks can run the table en route to the program’s third national title in school history, they would become the first team since UConn in the 2015-16 season to go through an entire season undefeated, and just the fifth program in WBB history to accomplish that feat. South Carolina could also draw more attention depending on whether a few particular rematches occur.

The first rematch I’m referring to is the Gamecocks versus the LSU Tigers, who made headlines for more than just their closely-contested SEC Tournament Title Game this past Sunday afternoon. With these two programs being far and away the best in the SEC and the past two national champions, network executives would salivate over the possibility of this taking place in Dallas in early April.

The other rematch that could shatter viewership records is if Carolina matches up with Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, which would also likely occur in the Final Four.

Dawn and the Gamecocks might not just break program records this year in the NCAA Tournament; they might also help set a new bar for the sport of women’s college basketball and bring it into the limelight even more than they already have in years past, something would be a positive for everyone involved.