Caitlin Clark’s first appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay got off to a rough start — in front of the very fans who adore her most.
The Indiana Fever star served as the celebrity guest picker in Iowa City on Saturday morning for the Top-15 Big Ten clash between No. 14 Iowa and No. 5 Ohio State, the show’s first visit to Iowa City since 2006. Sitting alongside Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis and Desmond Howard, Clark made her first pick: Iowa State over West Virginia.
The Hawkeye crowd booed.
“This is gonna be a bad start for me, but I’m taking Iowa State. I want to get 100 percent accuracy,” Clark said, grinning through the jeers. “It’s okay, you can boo me. I’ll make you happy at the end. My brother played football at Iowa State.”
By the end of the show, she had them back. Clark closed her picks by taking her Hawkeyes to upset Ohio State, sending the crowd into a roar — even if the game didn’t cooperate. The Buckeyes routed Iowa 31-14 at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Clark’s full slate of picks: Iowa State, UMass, BYU, Arizona, Miami, USC, Michigan, Mississippi State, Florida — and Iowa. The results were less kind than the Iowa City crowd’s forgiveness. Through Saturday’s windows, only the unpopular Iowa State pick came through, leaving her at 1-5 on the day as Mississippi State, Florida, Michigan and UMass all lost.
The weekend marked a whirlwind start to Clark’s offseason. Just two days earlier, her Fever were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs with a 94-83 Game 3 loss to the Las Vegas Aces. The same day, Nike launched her first signature shoe, the Nike Caitlin 1, and she was in Iowa City for a three-day pop-up shop with Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods near the Pentacrest.
Clark played four seasons at Iowa from 2020 to 2024, leaving as the all-time leading scorer in Division I history with 3,951 points and leading the Hawkeyes to back-to-back national title games. Iowa retired her No. 22 jersey in February 2025, and the Des Moines native remains the most beloved figure in the program’s history — boos for a Cyclones pick notwithstanding.
Her GameDay segment had its share of chaos, too: McAfee ripped off his shirt during the picks segment, apologized to Clark on camera for doing it in her presence, and then picked Ohio State over her Hawkeyes.
For Clark, it was the first taste of life as a full-time offseason celebrity. The Fever star finished her third WNBA season averaging 22.3 points and 8.3 assists for a team that went 28-16 — but still without a playoff series win. On Saturday, at least, the only scoreboard that mattered was the one she was reading.