Caitlin Clark has explained the reason why she rejected Notre Dame as her Iowa decision emphatically paid off.

The Indiana Fever sensation has taken the WNBA by storm with her winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award following a debut campaign that captured the imagination on the court and saw her lauded for her performances and impact on the sport off the court. But Clark’s rise would not have been possible if it wasn’t for her time at Iowa where she spent four years.

Clark was named the AP Player of the Year in consecutive years and is the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader with 3,951 points.

There is no doubt that Clark made the right decision, but it was nonetheless a risky one with Notre Dame winning the NCAA Division I championship just two years before she headed to college. Speaking on the ‘New Heights’ podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, Clark explained her decision was based on her close connection to her family.

“When I was going through my options, I knew I wanted to be in the midwest. I am a family person and wanted to stay fairly close to home, so that narrowed it down,” Clark said. “I visited Oregon and Texas and a few other places. I liked them but I just felt it was too far.

“Then I visited Notre Dame a bunch of times. I loved it and as a kid, you want to go to Notre Dame. It has that tradition and has had so many great players go through there, in so many different sports. But I could feel something in my gut that I wasn’t supposed to go there. So I picked Iowa.

“It had been really good at women’s basketball before I went there, made a few sweet 16s, elite eight but hadn’t been to the final four since like 1992. I wanted to go somewhere that was good but hadn’t been a ‘blue blood’ for quite a few years, and I could help them get back to that.

Caitlin Clark

Clark broke college and division records with the Hawkeyes ( 

Image:

Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

“It was the perfect distance that my parents couldn’t just show up, but I could go home sometimes. It kind of all added up and I guess my decision worked out!”

Clark played her entire college career with the Hawkeyes, becoming the all-time leading scorer among all college basketball players in history across both male and female divisions. Clark also met her boyfriend, fellow Hawkeyes basketball player Connor McCaffrey, while at Iowa.

The Fever star reflected on her incredible 2024 on the podcast as well, telling the Kelces that the year had been “life-changing.”

“It is crazy looking back a year ago to today, I was just beginning my senior year. People knew who I was and attended our games but not to the magnitude they do now. That is what makes it cool. I started a new chapter in my life moving to Indianapolis too,” Clark said of her journey into the league from college.

“It is so unlike any other professional sport. I played in the National Championships, went straight to the draft and got picked. You basically pick up and move and don’t even finish senior year in college. You don’t have time to overthink things but I feel like I never really ended the chapter of college.”