Colorado, Kennesaw State, Mississippi State and MSU Moorhead win 2023-24 CSC ChangeMaker Innovation
College Sports Information Directors of America
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University of Colorado, Kennesaw State University, Minnesota State Moorhead and Mississippi State University earn recognition for their innovative projects and initiatives created during the 2023-243 academic year. This is the fourth year of CSC ChangeMaker Innovation Award honors.
by Barb Kowal – CSC Director of Operations and Professional Development
Athletic communications staffs (and colleagues) from University of Colorado, Kennesaw State University, Minnesota State Moorhead and Mississippi State University have been selected as recipients of the 2023-24 College Sports Communicators (CSC) ChangeMaker Innovation Award for their creative work projects during the academic year.
This is the fourth year for this CSC award, recognizing individual members or departments who have created and managed innovative content during the current academic year. The purpose is to recognize forward-thinkers who bring new ideas to life — and strengthen the position of sports communicators and creatives and their work — with special content, a branding and messaging campaign, new storyteller packages, social media initiatives, a digital series and other initiatives.
The University of Colorado's winning entry focused on the development of "Skiing Live Team Scoring System/Software" – a first statistical scoring technique for team scoring in collegiate skiing - which was developed by Curtis Snyder, CU's associate athletics director for athletic communications and the media relations contact for the sport at CU. A national leader in NCAA skiing, Snyder is not only the primary Colorado SID for skiing, but the conference contact, the coaches association secretary, three-time co-tournament director of the NCAA Ski Championships and official scorer and media coordinator of nearly every NCAA Ski Championship. By implementing this scoring system, he was able to provide almost instaneous official scoring results at the 2024 NCAA Championship - in 22 seconds - allowing for a "One Shining Moment/March Madness" spontaneuous celebration for the winning team - which happened to be Colorado this season. That celebration was captured on video and shared across numerous platforms, resulting in record engagments and views. The live team scoring page in March resulted in a 1000 percent increase in web page views over the February views, and Instagram engagements and video audience views were also significant.
Kennesaw State's winning submission was its "Be Here Basketball Ticket Campaign" with creative and humerous social media and video content highlighting staff, student-athletes, fans, the basketball band and more; this generated unprecendented social media interest and engagement and good will surrounding the basketball program and the athletic department. One of the major accomplishments of the campaign was that KSU doubled its basketball season ticket sales from the year before. The entry was submitted by Nolan Alexander, KSU's Assistant Athletics Director of Communications and Broadcasting.
The winning entry submitted by Minnesota State Moorhead took its celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day to another level with its #PlayforHer campaign. This campaign, saluted female student-athletes and female staff members with a video incorporating historical and present-day footage and with an all-encompassing social media graphics campaign across all sports accounts – men's and women's – to call attention to the NGWSG annual celebration. The campaign was bolstered by surveying all Dragon female athletes in the fall, asking questions about being a female athlete and the impact sport has had in their lives. These survey answers were incorporated into their extensive photo galleries and quote graphics which were displayed across all their social media channels. Submission of this initiative came from Elizabeth Hennen, former MSUM GO! TEAM Video Production Manager.
The "Student Intern Program Advanced Class" initiative was Mississippi State's entry in the ChangeMaker contest, submitted by Brian Ogden, Mississippi State Associate Director/Communications. Last May, Ogden was challenged to enhance MSU's current student internship program to better develop candidates who could immediately step into full-time fellow roles in the MSU department upon graduation. Working with University of Tennessee athletic communications colleague Josh Lively who taught a PR course on his campus, Ogden developed a semester-long curriculum for his students.
Ogden then developed that curriculum and offered it as a volunteer class for those students who wanted to pursue a career in athletic communications. The optional course details, noted above in this announcement, included meeting with guest speakers, tactical skill development, writing techniques, social media and story execution. An important component for each student was a year-long "skills and advancement assessment worksheet" that they kept to mark their improvements, growths and achievements in specific sports communications skills and tasks. Mock interviews and a senior year exit interview also were held.
"After seeing a few prior students make that jump and struggle in a full-time role, our senior associate AD. for communications and creative Brandon Langlois pitched the idea of writing a few case studies for them to participate in," Ogden noted in his submission. "I took this a step further and developed a semester-long curriculum for our students to complete. Out of a staff of 18 students in the fall, I had six sign up for the course. We met every Tuesday night for an hour, and I also held office hours for them. They worked on their assignments at home or during free office hours as they would for any other collegiate course."
"Overall, our student program has grown tremendously over the past year. Along with our developmental offerings, I completely retooled our application process to identify more qualified students," Ogden wrote. "All applicants must now complete a few skills evaluations, which are also attached, before coming in for an interview. This has allowed us to weed out students who are just sports fans and find those who are truly interested and willing to put in the effort to succeed."
Related News
- National winners announced for the 2025-26 CSC Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest — June 01, 2026
- Boise State, Saint John’s (Minnesota) and UTSA recognized as the 2025-26 CSC ChangeMaker Innovation Award recipients — May 26, 2026
- District winners announced for the 2025-26 CSC Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest — May 12, 2026
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M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
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M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
06/07/26
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All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
06/08/26
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All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
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All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
06/09/26
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11:59 P.M.
Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
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All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
06/16/26
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12:00 P.M.
Softball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
06/16/26
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12:00 P.M.
M/W At-Large Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
06/16/26
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11:59 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Nomination Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
06/23/26
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12:00 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA)
06/23/26
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12:00 P.M.
Baseball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
06/23/26
/
11:59 P.M.
M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
06/30/26
/
11:59 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
07/07/26
/
12:00 P.M.
W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
07/08/26
/
12:00 P.M.
M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
07/14/26
/
12:00 P.M.
M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
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