Notre Dame and South Carolina look to make history on Monday, November 6 by playing the very first NCAA regular-season game in Paris, France.
News of the game being held in Paris first broke back in May, when South Carolina announced the game with a social media post.
South Carolina is fresh off of a Final Four appearance where they were upset by Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Gamecocks experienced a drop in the preseason AP poll due to their highly touted "Freshies" class graduating, who were the highest ranked recruiting class when they first came to South Carolina back in 2019. This class included Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, and Latecia Amihere, who all just finished their rookie season in the WNBA. Players, such as Raven Johnson and Kamilia Cardoso are now seen as leaders for this season's edition of the Gamecocks.
For Notre Dame, they also experienced a bit of a drop in the preseason AP poll due to the unknown availability of star guard Olivia Miles, who suffered a knee injury towards the end of the ACC tournament back in February. In the March Madness tournament, fans got to witness an offense that was built around Miles play without her, and for many, it was not pretty to watch at all. The Fighting Irish are looking to rebound after a tumultuous ending to their 2023 campaign.
Both South Carolina and Notre Dame have the chance here to make a connection with women's basketball fans from all over the world by playing this game. Women's basketball is huge in many countries outside of the United States, and they have the opportunity to create a fanbase overseas for not only their schools, but other schools as well. South Carolina and Notre Dame are also ranked in the preseason AP poll, at number six and number 10, respectively, so this will most likely be an extremely competitive match.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN on November 6, 2023 at 1 PM EST from Halle Georges Arena in Paris, France.