"The league wasn't ready for her," - WNBA analyst drops wild idea to maximize Caitlin Clark's impact after Fever's 41 national TV games 

The WNBA is going full throttle on advertising Caitlin Clark this season as the Indiana Fever guard heads into her sophomore season. The WNBA recently announced that 41 out of Indiana's 44 games will be nationally televized.

The 41 nationally televized games are up from 36 games from Clark's first season with the franchise, where she went on to win the Rookie of the Year award and earned All-WNBA First Team honors while leading the league in assists.

However, Sports Radio Host Colin Cowherd claims that the WNBA had no idea what to do with the popularity of Clark during her first season. Cowherd said on The Herd this Monday morning that the league should utilize Clark's fandom by making a deal with a separate network just for her games.

"If I was the WNBA, I would have considered a separate television package to a network on just Caitlin Clark games," Cowherd said. "I would have had two packages. The WNBA package and then a separate 5 to 18 Caitlin Clark package for HBO, Fox, it could have been anybody."

The veteran analyst added that while Clark played well in her rookie season, the league failed to capitalize on the star power of the Indiana Fever's 2024 No.1 overall pick.

"The league wasn't ready for her last year," Cowherd said. "They just weren't prepared. She was prepared...She's going to be great. The league just didn't know what to do."

The Indiana Fever this season have the most number of televized games of any team including the defending WNBA Champions, New York Liberty. The Liberty only have 32 games while the 2022 and 2023 back-to-back champs Las Vegas Aces have 33.

Caitlin Clark aiming to make a deeper run in the WNBA playoffs

The increase in nationally broadcasted games this season may be a benefit to not only the WNBA but also to Caitlin Clark as she hopes to lead the Fever deeper into the playoffs.

Clark, along with 2023 No.1 overall pick Aliyah Boston, led Indiana to the first round of the playoffs last season. After falling in the initial round to the Connecticut Sun, the Fever retooled this offseason to bring over former Sun Coach of the Year Stephanie White and sign Sun star DeWanna Bonner.

Indiana will open their season at home on May 17 against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky as the Reese-Clark rivalry sets the stage for the Fever's nationally televized schedule.