Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese’s return to college for WNBA preseason games to be shown on national TV

NEW YORK (AP) — Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s return to college for WNBA preseason games will be two of a record four exhibition games shown on national TV.

Clark will head back to Iowa for an exhibition between her Indiana Fever and the Brazilian national team on Sunday, a game airing on ESPN. The Fever’s exhibition game against the Washington Mystics a day earlier will be on NBA TV.

Reese will lead the Chicago Sky back to her alma mater, LSU, on Friday to face the Brazilian team. Sky teammate Kamilla Cardoso played for that Brazilian team in February 2024, trying to help it qualify for the Paris Olympics. That game will be part of a doubleheader on ION.

The WNBA will be showing all 15 of its preseason games either on national television or league pass.

“We’ve seen the demand for WNBA content grow exponentially and we are meeting that demand by working with our broadcast partners and our teams to make a significant investment by making all 15 preseason games available to WNBA fans,” Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison said.

The league showed two exhibition games in 2023 and four last year, including Clark’s debut, which was on league pass. Reese’s preseason debut against Minnesota wasn’t televised, but a fan livestreamed it on social media. The livestream drew significant attention, getting millions of views.

The two rookies last season helped the league draw record-breaking viewership. ESPN games averaged 1.2 million viewers in the regular season, a 170% increase from the previous year. The postseason averaged 1.1 million viewers, making it the league’s most-viewed playoffs in 25 years.

The other game that will be nationally televised will be when Dallas plays Las Vegas at Notre Dame in the first game of the ION doubleheader Friday. Three former Irish stars — Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale and Las Vegas’ Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young — are coming back to campus. The game also will mark the debut of Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft two weeks ago.