USC women's basketball picked a great time to play a quality game. The Trojans were on national television, slotted on Fox Sports on the Saturday before Christmas. Fans wanted to tune in and see USC superstar JuJu Watkins go up against UConn superstar Paige Bueckers, in a battle of elite athletes who are almost certain to be future No. 1 WNBA draft picks. Bueckers will be the likely No. 1 pick in 2025, and JuJu will follow Paige later in this decade.

USC women's basketball and JuJu Watkins are at the center of the story of women's hoops this season. The college game no longer has Caitlin Clark, whose Iowa career ended last April in the national championship game at the Final Four against South Carolina, and whose WNBA career immediately took off with the Indiana Fever this past summer. In women's college basketball, JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers are the two foremost stars. Their thrilling Saturday night game, won 72-70 by USC over UConn, could offer American sports fans a tantalizing preview of a possible blockbuster rematch at the 2025 Women's Final Four in Tampa. Keeping in mind that March Madness games will draw bigger numbers than December games, the USC-UConn TV ratings on Fox are encouraging for USC fans and women's basketball fans in general. Let's share the actual viewership numbers, with added statistics and context surrounding USC's big win Saturday night:

2.2 MILLION VIEWERS IS A BIG NUMBER FOR FOX SPORTS

The USC-UConn TV ratings are in, and they are good: The game averaged 2.23 million viewers, making it the second-highest-rated game ever shown on Fox Sports, and the most-watched women's college basketball game so far this season. This game got plenty of eyeballs on it.

PEAK OF 3.76 MILLION VIEWERS

Fox Sports said that the audience for USC-UConn women's basketball peaked at 3.76 million viewers in the first 15 minutes of the broadcast window. This is likely due to the fact that USC-UConn followed Fox's NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. The NFL lead-in gave this game a boost.

COMPARISON WITH CAITLIN CLARK

Fox's highest-rated women's basketball game of all time -- the only game to draw a bigger number for the network than USC-UConn -- was the Ohio State-Iowa regular-season finale last March. That was Caitlin Clark's final regular-season home game as an Iowa Hawkeye. That game drew 3.4 million, 1.2 million more than USC-UConn. When you account for the fact that 2024 Ohio State-Iowa was not competing with any NFL or college football games, USC-UConn's TV ratings look even better in context. Imagine what a USC-UConn Final Four game would pull in if it happens next April in Tampa.

RATING COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

The ratings for USC-UConn could have been much worse. Ohio State blowing out Tennessee in the College Football Playoff likely helped USC-UConn maintain a solid rating. If OSU-Tennessee was a close game for all 60 minutes, maybe we're not looking at a bigger TV number for USC women's basketball on Fox. In that sense, USC women's basketball and the larger sport of women's college basketball got lucky.

OHIO STATE-TENNESSEE UNDERPERFORMED

Ohio State-Tennessee did not get 15 million viewers. Buckeyes-Vols got just over 14 million, which -- given the big names of the schools involved, and given the prime-time slot on ESPN and ABC -- had the potential to bring in close to 20 million viewers, at least 17 to 18 million. It's a really disappointing number for ESPN and ABC, all things considered. USC-UConn benefited from the blowout in Columbus. OSU raced to a quick 21-0 lead and caused a lot of television sets to change channels.

USC-UCONN TV RATINGS COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

In all candor, the USC-UConn TV ratings could have been better, when viewed through this particular lens: USC dominated the first 2.5 quarters of the game and led by 18 points -- 51-33 -- midway through the third quarter. Some viewers likely flipped away from the game, only for UConn to then rally and create a very close contest in the fourth quarter. If this game had been neck-and-neck the whole way, it probably would have come close to 3 million viewers. To that extent, this game might not have hit its absolute ceiling. It's a very solid number, but USC's dominance early in the game might have led a few casual viewers -- who had just watched Steelers-Ravens -- to change the channel.

Also: Ravens-Steelers was close for most of the game but became a Ravens runaway in the fourth qurater. If Ravens-Steelers had been close all the way to the final few minutes, that might have boosted USC-UConn even more than it actually did. Not everything fell into place in terms of helping this game achieve the highest possible TV rating.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF UNDERHWELMED

The four first-round College Football Playoff games did not do well as a collective, averaging just over 10 million viewers as a group. The SMU-Penn State game pulled in fewer than 7 million. Clemson-Texas pulled in fewer than 9 million. USC-UConn grabbing over 2 million viewers on a day stuffed with high-end football matchups is really very good under the circumstances.

USC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BENEFITS

Lindsay Gottlieb worked very hard with Fox Sports to put this game together in this time slot. Given how the rest of the football weekend unfolded, USC got more viewers than most people probably expected. With so many eyeballs on this game, USC's road win over a dynastic college basketball powerhouse should be a gold mine for USC in both the transfer portal and in recruiting for the next cycle. Players will want to play with JuJu Watkins in JuJu's junior season. The Trojans had the No. 1-ranked freshman class for this year. With recruits watching JuJu beat Paige Bueckers and UConn, there's little question that USC should have another big-time recruiting haul for the coming cycle.

FOX AND BIG TEN NETWORK

Fox's partnership with the Big Ten Conference, and USC's presence on Big Ten Network, should create a Big Ten women's basketball season in which USC women's basketball pulls in solid ratings for both networks. Fox and BTN will give USC the visibility the program lacked under Pac-12 Network.

At least 10 USC games are already scheduled for either Fox, FS1, or BTN this season, with more likely to be added. USC plays Michigan on Sunday, Dec. 29, on Big Ten Network. It then plays Nebraska on New Year's Day on Big Ten Network as well. More fans will be able to see JuJu Watkins and the Women of Troy now that they have escaped from Pac-12 Network. USC is going to receive so much more national exposure than it did a season ago.

USC-UCLA SHOWDOWNS

USC and UCLA are both ranked in the top four of the national polls. They both have huge wins -- USC over UConn, UCLA over defending national champion South Carolina. The USC-UCLA battle for the Big Ten championship -- with Ohio State and Maryland also being primary contenders -- will be must-see TV. The Trojans and Bruins will meet twice, home and home, and they could meet a third time at the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament in March.

Will they meet four times? If they do, that means they will both be at the 2025 Women's Final Four in April. This could be the start of something really big for both of the Los Angeles women's basketball schools in the Big Ten.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC-UConn women's basketball is second-highest-rated Fox game ever