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Sports production professor creates career pipeline into sports journalism industry

Andy Young has worked behind the scenes for some of the biggest names in sports, including ESPN, the SEC Network and the New York Mets. Now he’s teaching the next generation of professionals in Auburn as a journalism-sports production professor.

With all the different pathways to take within college athletics and television, no two days are ever the same. Whether it's a job with a network or a team, Young makes sure his students are prepared by teaching everything from technical production skills to lessons in teamwork, corporate relations and adaptability.

“We try to teach a little bit of everything,” Young said. “I always tell my students, ‘I'm going to change the way you watch productions on television. I’m going to change the way you think about it forever because you're going to know everything that goes on behind the scenes.’”

Young received his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and worked with their athletic department as an undergraduate. After graduation, Young began his professional career in New York City with the New York Mets’ video department and ABC News.

“I started more on the production side, so early on it was a lot of editing and shooting. As time went on, it turned into managing and producing live events,” Young said. “I went from working with teams to producing ESPN events. It really was a mix of doing the actual production, managing the productions and just managing people.”

After working at ESPN in Connecticut for a year and a half, Young decided to go back to Nebraska to get his master's degree and work within the athletic department. After that experience, Young decided he wanted to work in college athletics again and landed at the University of Illinois to help develop their athletic video department.

“I grew up as a major college football fan, so that's always been my first love in sports. I love all sports, but college football and basketball were always the things I loved the most,” Young said. “I always looked at Auburn as one of the top programs in the country. So obviously, when the opportunity at Auburn came up, I jumped at that.”

In 2014, Young came to Auburn and started War Eagle Productions (WEP), Auburn Athletics’ video production as the assistant athletic director overseeing WEP, Young worked alongside ESPN to develop and launch the SEC Network.

As a prior student employee himself, Young understood the value of student input and made sure students would be involved in War Eagle Productions. This involvement gives students the opportunity to be hands-on in an explosive sports environment like the SEC and work with professionals throughout the industry. 

“I advise my students to take advantage of all the opportunities that are on our campus, because that's what college is for,” Young said. “Make your mistakes now. I'd rather have you make them in a class or a job on campus here as opposed to later on. Sports production is an industry where you learn from all your mistakes.”

In 2020, the School of Communication and Journalism launched a Sports Production track within the journalism major. Young was delighted at the opportunity to share his insight with students who love collegiate and professional sports as much as he does and are interested in pursuing it as a career. The Sports Production program aims to educate students hoping to pursue careers as sports producers, field producers, directors, control room operators, video editors and more.

Young teaches two introductory sections on control room operations and a senior level class in production. Control Room Operations gives a broad overview of all the roles behind the scenes, whether it's directing, producing, camera work or replay. Sports Producing is a deeper dive into the role of producing, spending the whole semester talking about producing as opposed to the two weeks they would focus on that in the intro class.

Young also teaches a course in the history of sports production, looking back at how production started from radio to where it is now in the streaming environment and social media. The course covers the evolution of sports and contracts on networks, the money involved and the work that goes into it.

Auburn’s Sports Production program has already made a deep impact on the sports entertainment world and has several alumni who work for ESPN. Throughout the year, Auburn's own students help produce Auburn sports coverage and are currently covering the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

“We've had awesome students here at Auburn that have gone on to do really amazing things within the industry,” Young said. “Out of all the places I've been, Auburn has the most eager, most involved students. I love to see the passion the students have to get better, especially when they realize it's going to be worth it.”

Learn more about the Journalism-Sports Production track.

Tags: Communication and Journalism Faculty