Unique among athletic departments in the SEC, Texas A&M' University’s 12th Man Productions is one of the only universities that gives students the opportunity to produce broadcasts and content for Aggie sporting events.
Located underneath Kyle Field, 12th Man Productions is an award-winning broadcast team that works directly with SEC and ESPN networks to produce content for sporting events. With a staff that is almost entirely student-run, 12th Man Productions offers the students of A&M an experience that is unlike any other student job on campus, Senior Broadcast Producer Elissa Killebrew says.
“The job is an easy sell for students,” Elissa says. “Students want to be involved in athletics — they want to be on the court, they want to be on the field — they want to be in the action. If you’re going to go to a basketball game anyways, why not just work on the sidelines of the game? We’re developing young professionals.”
As soon as students get hired at 12th Man Productions, they are trained in certain positions and thrown directly into the action. Staff members have the unique opportunity to sit courtside for basketball games, be on the sideline for Aggie football in the fall and learn valuable life skills that will transfer into their future careers, Elissa says
The opportunities for getting involved in a variety of sports is endless with shows for sports like basketball, football, volleyball, baseball and soccer, among many others. In fact, Elissa says the organization produced more than 100 shows last year, 33 of which were nationally televised.
In partnership with the live broadcast, the staff at 12th Man Productions has a dedicated team of post production students who focus on creating videos and content like social media posts and recruit videos from clips that they capture in game.
From the time that students start at 12th Man Productions, their work is being broadcasted on a stage that could potentially help them land a job after graduation, Director of Broadcast Justin Argo says.
“From the time we interview them when they’re first getting hired and not understanding how this works to then teaching them and watching them develop to where they’re doing these nationally televised broadcasts on ESPN with potentially millions of people watching them,” Justin says. “I love watching the students grow.”
With such a great opportunity forstudents, 12th Man Productions has a huge focus on training students, especially those who may not have had prior experience, Elissa says. Oftentimes these students who come in as 18 year olds are often trained to be an expert and help pass on those skills to incoming students.
“Training people is important but being able to see students grow in their position is super cool,” Elissa says. “When things come together perfectly and you produce a great show, and people are receptive to you, that’s the best feeling ever.”
Students who have worked at 12th Man Productions have gone on to get jobs with ESPN directly out of college or move on to produce shows for other schools. With the wide variety of experiences that are gained during your time on the job, the possibilities are endless, Elissa says. Applications for new students open in the fall and she encourages students to apply if they are interested in being a part of A&M sports history.
“This is the best student job on campus,” Elissa says. “Even if you’re not interested in this career path, it’s just such a cool place to meet people and be part of Texas A&M athletics history. You never know what game is going to be historic like A&M beats Alabama or A&M beats LSU in seven overtime — you get to be a part of that here.”
