The new Nielsen metric for women's CBB popularity confirmed what Iowa fans already know

In the second year under Jan Jensen, the Iowa Women's Basketball program took a huge leap forward.

Last season, Iowa bowed out of the Big Ten Tournament in the quarterfinals and earned a six-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

No one expected Iowa to be as good as they have been this season with such a young team, but they have surpassed all expectations.

Regardless of how good Iowa was projected to be this season, the fans have supported the program in waves at home games and on television when the squad is on the road.

The Iowa women have become one of the most popular women's college basketball teams in the nation, even without Caitlin Clark, and Nielsen's newest ratings metric backs that up.

Iowa is the 'most popular' women's college basketball team

Nielsen, the long-standing television rankings system, established a new metric to determine which program is the "most popular" in women's college basketball

The metric measures total viewership combined with social media data, and in unsuprising news, Iowa sits alone on top of the rankings.

According to Nielsen, Iowa is the "most popular" women's college basketball team ahead of SEC powerhouses South Carolina and LSU.

While this metric empirically proves that Iowa is the most-watched and most-popular team in women's college hoops, it's what Hawkeye fans have been saying for years.

No Caitlin Clark, no problem for the Hawkeye faithful, who continue to support the program better than any other program in the country.

Carver-Hawkeye Arena is once again sold out for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, further cementing Iowa's status as "most popular."