On Sunday, ESPN released a YouTube video questioning: “Is Caitlin Clark The Greatest Of All Time In College Basketball?” The nearly 11-minute video concluded that Clark is not the greatest women’s college player of all time and isn’t even among the top five.
How can this be? Many fans wondered how the sport’s all-time leading scorer and two-time player of the year could be excluded from the top five in women’s college history. By Monday, the video had amassed close to 650 comments, predominantly criticizing ESPN for sidelining Clark and using a “clickbait” title.
Sam Ravech, Ari Chambers, and Alexa Philippou addressed the Clark debate, agreeing on her exceptional ability but attributing her absence from the top five to her lack of a championship. “I love Caitlin, love how she has transcended the game,” Chambers remarked. “But we mentioned ‘What makes a top-five player? Winning.’ The only strike against Caitlin Clark is that she has not won a national championship. How can you be a top-five player if you have not won a title?”
The trio ultimately settled on an all-time top five list featuring Breanna Stewart, Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Cheryl Miller. While these are all esteemed players, many fans felt that Clark’s exclusion was a glaring oversight.
And then there’s this.
The title of the video from ESPN is “Is Caitlin Clark Top 5 all-time in women’s CBB? They make the argument that she isn’t because she never won the title, but the clickbait title worked.
— Wes Reynolds (@WesReynolds1) March 17, 2025
Caitlin Clark is without a doubt a top 5 player.
Put her on any of the big college ball teams and she would have had numerous championships. She accomplished more at Iowa than most other players did with the top teams. It’s ridiculous this is even being debated. https://t.co/q2QVsAalHo
— James Scott #TeamOrca (@LongerTables) March 16, 2025
espn puts out a 10 min video ranking all time college players. they say caitlin can’t be ranked in the top 5. yet the title is “Is Caitlin Clark The Greatest Of All Time In College Basketball?” to farm engagement and hate lmfaooo pic.twitter.com/X26K6wm6pX
— correlation (@nosyone4) March 16, 2025
Anyone saying that Caitlin Clark isn’t the GREATEST college basketball player EVER is not dealing in reality. She broke EVERY scoring record and brought a non ‘main line’ team to two consecutive National Championship Games. She is the greatest college player ever … men’s or…
— ev riley (@evriley) March 17, 2025
Ravech, Chambers, and Philippou are not the first to state that a player must win a championship to be considered truly great. However, Clark’s legacy at Iowa as the sport’s all-time leading scorer and a two-time Naismith Player of the Year cannot be overlooked. Chambers acknowledged that she “transcended the game,” making her absence from that list feel particularly incomplete.
