Fifty-four years have gone by since the passing of Title IX, and women athletes continue to make history today.

Colorado State women’s basketball stars Brooke Carlson, Kloe Froebe and Hannah Ronsiek made the bold decision to go where few athletes have gone before: livestreaming.

In a game against San Diego State Feb. 11, these three chose to livestream their own game with the help of Creator Sports Network and Opendorse. The platforms function by utilizing content creators and their platforms to stream the game live on social media. In turn, athletes act as their own broadcasters.

“It was a great opportunity to have a platform like that and use it. It brings a different type of recognition to women’s basketball, and that just goes a long way.” –Brooke Carlson, CSU women’s basketball guard

CSN was founded by Barrick Prince, who previously worked at Twitch where he led original content development for its sports channel.

“We look at creators like television stations, really, and so what we do is we work with teams, leagues and rights holders to legally license the live rights to broadcast using creators on all social media platforms,” Prince said. 

The idea to explore this new opportunity for athletes originated from his time at Twitch, inspiring him to create an alternative to traditional TV channels.

The legal ground of these livestreams is something many have questioned, especially as CSN has to work around channels like ESPN, Fox Sports and other major sports media outlets. 

“We were going to create a brand-new right that didn’t exist,” Prince said. “We were lucky enough and scrappy enough to get some lawyers to agree with us that social media was different, and so we were able to legally define the ability for creators to stream.” 

Since Prince founded the company in 2023, he has been working on a deal with the Mountain West Conference to gain rights to livestream games.

That’s when Carlson, Froebe and Ronsiek stepped up and took their chance to make history. Despite losing to the Aztecs 64-61, the trio made history as the first college athletes to livestream their own game.

“It was a great opportunity to have a platform like that and use it,” Carlson said. “It brings a different type of recognition to women’s basketball, and that just goes a long way.”

Not only did this livestream help create that recognition, but it also showed other athletes how there are more avenues to make money — something that is especially helpful for woman athletes given the pay gap between their male counterparts. 

CSN and Opendorse provide opportunities for woman athletes to get more recognition, grow a larger social media presence and make more money.

Opendorse is a Name, Image and Likeness platform that helps college athletes monetize their personal brands through things like brand deals and cameos for fans. Their role in the CSU livestream and the overall MW deal was to make sure everything was in line legally.

“There are so many different moving parts and pieces and things that need to be navigated with college athletics and college athletes,” said Julian Valentin, senior vice president of collegiate services and marketing at Opendorse. “That’s our specialty. Working with agents, working with operational people to actually get these athletes to start the stream and make sure everything is papered contractually.”

By partnering with CSN and athletes nationwide, Opendorse makes college sports more accessible to the target audience: college students.

With the option for fans to watch their favorite team and support their favorite athletes at the touch of a button, the question arises of whether a college student would still use a paid subscription.

Aside from just students, livestreaming could also help NCAA teams in the long run. While for now it may look like the Rams are venturing into the unknown, there could come a time when livestreaming games on social media is the new norm in college sports.

“I can see a scenario where a blue chip, top-10 athlete decides to not go to a Power Five conference and comes to the Pac-12 and CSU because they can stream their own games, and they can’t get that anywhere else,” Prince said. “I think that that’s going to be a pull for athletes because athletes are media businesses themselves, and they should be doing the distribution.”

Between leaving the MW to join the Pac-12 and being the first college to step into uncharted territory, the future is shrouded in mystery for the Rams.

But one thing that’s certain is the innovation of CSU athletes.

Reach Sophia Schaller at sports@collegian.com or on social media @sophschaller.

Interested in more sports content? Sign up for Ram Report here for weekly CSU sports updates!