Why Caitlin Clark chose Iowa over Notre Dame and changed her career

How Caitlin Clark’s decision to choose Iowa over Notre Dame changed her basketball career (Image via Getty: Caitlin Clark)

Before Caitlin Clark became one of the biggest names in women’s basketball, she was a highly recruited teenager from West Des Moines, Iowa, facing a major college decision. Notre Dame had the tradition and championships, while Iowa offered something more personal: home and the chance to help build something special.On Nov. 12, 2019, Clark committed to Iowa over Notre Dame and Iowa State. What looked like a major recruiting win for Lisa Bluder became much more than that. It became a career turning point, putting Clark on the path to becoming the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and leading Iowa to two national championship games. ESPN later revealed just how close she came to choosing a different path.

How Caitlin Clark nearly chose Notre Dame before changing her mind?

Caitlin Clark’s recruitment was already unusual because some of the biggest programs in the country wanted her long before she reached college.

ESPN reported in November 2019 that Clark was ranked No. 4 nationally in the 2020 recruiting class, making her the highest-ranked recruit in Iowa’s class at the time. Her final choices eventually came down to Iowa, Iowa State and Notre Dame.Notre Dame had an obvious advantage in the eyes of many people around Clark. The Fighting Irish had won the 2018 national championship under Muffet McGraw and returned to the national championship game in 2019.

Clark had grown up watching Notre Dame and was particularly drawn to stars such as Skylar Diggins. ESPN’s Wright Thompson later reported that Clark’s family also wanted her to attend Notre Dame.“My family wanted me to go to Notre Dame,” Clark told ESPN. “At the end of the day they were like, you make the decision for yourself. But it’s NOTRE DAME! ‘Rudy’ was one of my favorite movies. How could you not pick Notre Dame?”The decision became even more complicated because Clark actually told McGraw that she intended to attend Notre Dame.

ESPN reported that Clark called McGraw after deciding that Notre Dame was the “smart” choice. She then called Bluder to deliver the bad news while Bluder was attending a field hockey game.But the story did not end there. Clark continued to have doubts, and Iowa assistant Jan Jensen eventually reached out to see where her head was. Clark admitted that she had changed her mind. The next step was far more difficult because she had to call McGraw again and tell her she was no longer coming to Notre Dame.ESPN’s account of the recruitment showed just how emotional that moment was for Clark. She was only 17 years old, sitting in her bedroom and preparing to call one of the most respected coaches in women’s basketball. Eventually, she made the call and then contacted Bluder. Clark committed to Iowa, and the coaching staff celebrated immediately.The decision became official when Clark announced her Iowa commitment publicly.

ESPN reported that she chose the Hawkeyes over Notre Dame and Iowa State, giving Bluder the highest-ranked recruit of her tenure at that point.

Why Caitlin Clark’s decision to choose Iowa became the real career turning point?

The importance of Caitlin Clark’s decision was not simply that she stayed close to home. It was that she chose a program where she believed she could help create something bigger.In her 2026 appearance on “Post Moves with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston,” Clark explained the thinking behind the decision in greater detail.

She said there was something about Notre Dame that ultimately did not feel right, even though she respected the program and its history.“I loved the idea of going to a school that obviously had been to the Final Four in 1992 or 1993,” Clark said during the podcast. She then explained why Iowa appealed to her so strongly: “I loved the idea of, like, staying home and, like, trying to take a place that meant a lot to me and, like, the state of Iowa to somewhere they hadn’t been in a really long time.”But staying home was only part of the reason. Clark later revealed that Bluder’s belief in her played a major role in the decision.“I think just her belief in me from Day 1 when I stepped on campus, like she gave me the keys to the offense, really the program and had always constant belief in what I could do and what I can help achieve,” Clark said, according to Basketball Network.Clark also had a clear goal from the beginning. She said that when she first committed to Iowa, she wanted to take the Hawkeyes to the Final Four.

At the time, that sounded ambitious because Iowa had not reached the Final Four since 1993.“A lot of people were like that would never happen,” Clark recalled.That belief eventually became reality. Iowa reached the Final Four in Clark’s junior season and returned the following year, giving the program back-to-back Final Four appearances for the first time in its history.

How Caitlin Clark turned the Iowa decision into a historic college career?

Caitlin Clark did not need several years to prove that Iowa had landed a special player.

She arrived in Iowa City in 2020 and quickly became the centerpiece of the Hawkeyes’ offense, eventually turning the program into a national attraction.During her four-year Iowa career, Clark averaged 28.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.1 rebounds while playing in all 139 games. She led the Hawkeyes to their first national championship game in 2023 and returned them to the title game again in 2024.The biggest transformation came during those final two seasons.

Iowa entered the 2022-23 season without a Final Four appearance since 1993. Clark then helped the Hawkeyes reach the national semifinals, where they stunned undefeated defending champion South Carolina before falling to LSU in the championship game.A year later, Iowa reached the title game again. This time, the Hawkeyes defeated LSU in the Elite Eight before losing to South Carolina in the championship game.Clark’s individual numbers eventually became almost impossible to separate from Iowa’s rise.

She passed Pete Maravich to become the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer during the 2023-24 season, while the Hawkeyes became one of the biggest attractions in women’s college basketball.Yet Clark also changed as a player during those four years. She later admitted that trusting her teammates was something she had to learn.“I think that was like a process of learning over the course of my career, especially trusting my teammates,” Clark said.

“I felt like I always had to do it all myself.”By her junior and senior seasons, she understood that the Hawkeyes were better when everyone around her had the freedom to flourish.“I think especially my junior and senior year, like, that was the reason why we were so good, is cuz my teammates flourished in their roles, but I also trusted them and they trusted me,” Clark added.That development helps explain why Bluder’s early belief in Clark was so important.None of that was guaranteed when Clark was sitting in her bedroom at 17, preparing to call McGraw and reverse her Notre Dame commitment.She could have chosen the established powerhouse. Instead, she chose the place where she believed she could build something.

That decision eventually gave Clark four years in an Iowa program where she became the central figure, broke records and helped take the Hawkeyes to places they had not reached in decades.“I loved the idea of staying home,” Clark explained years later.For Clark, though, staying home became much bigger than geography. Iowa gave her the opportunity to play with the freedom and responsibility she wanted, while Bluder’s belief gave her the confidence to chase a goal that seemed unrealistic at the time.She did not know exactly how far that decision would take her. But she knew she wanted to build something in Iowa. Looking back at everything that followed, the choice to turn down Notre Dame and stay home stands out as one of the defining turning points of Caitlin Clark’s career.