If you’re a sports fan – and most likely, even if you’re not – you’re very familiar with the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” ESPN. The ubiquitous network broadcasts 65 sports, 24 hours a day in 16 languages in more than 200 countries.

The ESPN empire consists of sister cable channels ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS and ESPN Classic, as well as ESPN America and ESPN Deportes – and even ESPN 3D. It has a mega-Web presence via the massive ESPN.com website, and ESPN3.com, which streams live sporting events online. The company is entrenched in other media as well, with ESPN Radio and publishing entities such as ESPN The Magazine, ESPN RISE and ESPN W.

And there’s one more thing ESPN has: Aggies.

At least six New Mexico State alumni work or have worked at the network’s Bristol, Conn., campus, along with a pair of non-alums who worked for what has become a reliable pipeline to the big-time: University Broadcasting’s AggieVision, the leading source for Aggie sports.

The concept began in 2006 as the brainchild of Kyle Doperalski and originally was created to help provide content for the video boards that were installed at Aggie Memorial Stadium and the Pan American Center. From there, the AggieVision staff decided they could go one step further and produce television broadcasts as well; now their main focus is the television production of about 40 live sporting events per year, in addition to the approximately 35 weekly coaches’ shows produced annually.

“All of those productions have a large student contingent,” says Joe Brackman, AggieVision’s general manager and the man largely responsible for its growth. “On the live broadcast of games we’ll use anywhere from 12 to 20 people on the crew for a football game, and of those only five are full-time staff members, including the two announcers. Students fill the rest of those positions. The coaches’ shows are smaller productions that don’t need as many people, but there’s a student component to those as well.”

Production bloomed under the direction of Steve Macy, who joined NMSU in 2007 and was tasked with securing announcers, buying equipment and working to get the crew’s work on the air.

Mission accomplished. Comcast committed to air all games in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Gallup, N.M., and Time Warner in El Paso, Texas, agreed to do the same. Macy was able to secure additional coverage on Altitude Sports in Denver and FSN-Arizona, meaning that more than eight million homes could see AggieVision for certain games.

The development of AggieVision can largely be attributed to Glen Cerny, executive director of University Broadcasting. In fact, the NMSU-to-ESPN pipeline began though a contact of his at the network who works as production operations manager.

“A good college friend of mine, Walter Franklin, has been working there forever, and Walter and I have kept in pretty constant contact throughout our careers,” Cerny says. “Joe Franco’s and my relationship blossomed quickly because of my friendship with Walter.”

Franco, university recruitment manager, travels to universities nationwide, seeking applicants for internships and careers with ESPN. The original production team, composed of NMSU graduates Mylan Chavez ’06 and Luke Wilbanks ’07, teamed up with staff members Doperalski and associate producer Mike Ruebusch to get AggieVision off the ground. Franco took Ruebusch, Wilbanks and Chavez to ESPN to work in production.

Wilbanks, fellow Aggie Brad Faison ’10 and Doperalski comprised the original trio that put together the concept and plan for AggieVision. Wilbanks worked for ESPN in 2008-2009, starting out as an operations technician on the network’s flagship program, “SportsCenter,” before leaving to start a freelance production company in Austin, Texas.

“I wouldn’t trade my NMSU experience for anything,” says Wilbanks, who graduated in 2007 with a journalism degree. “Due to all the work I put in, the learning curve at ESPN was relegated to simply learning the tools they use. I already knew how a studio worked and everyone’s roles because of AggieVision. And I have to credit KRWG-TV production supervisor Ralph Escandon. His TV production classes offered me some of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had.”

Faison, who graduated in summer 2010 with a degree in individualized studies focusing on creative media, is still with the network, as an operations technician. He spent six months working full-time for AggieVision in addition to his extensive work with the production throughout his entire student career at NMSU before leaving to join ESPN in February.

“While classroom instruction is essential, at some point you have to apply that knowledge in the field. Through AggieVision and the Creative Media Institute’s partnerships, I was exposed to professional work,” explains Faison. “These opportunities proved to be as important to my education as my classroom instruction.”

Wilbanks agrees.

“The opportunities I had outside of class gave me a solid foundation on which to build a career,” Wilbanks says. “I felt well-prepared to go out into the real world of television production because I directed more than 100 live newscasts, technical-directed many AggieVision productions and was part of the team that built the AggieVision production truck from scratch.”

The newest member of the Aggie/ESPN family is Ryan Humble ’11, who turned a 10-week internship into a full-time job at the network, as an operations technician.

He began Aug. 8 after graduating as a President’s Associates Scholar in May, with a degree in creative media.

“I learned so much working at AggieVision,” Humble says. “The equipment and the hands-on experience were so helpful. The workflows and control positions of live broadcasts are nearly identical everywhere, so knowing that in advance gave me a big advantage.”

According to Cerny, the fact that Franco and his cohorts at ESPN keep coming back to NMSU to recruit and interview – recent graduates Jessica Gonzales ’10 and Adam Schaub ’10 are two more Aggies that have been or are part of the network – speaks for itself.

“If our students don’t do well there, the recruiters aren’t coming back here,” he says. “The fact that they’re still calling us is a pretty good indication that they’re happy. If they go to Bristol and fail miserably, it doesn’t continue.”

“The person in charge of my internship told me they wanted more people from AggieVision,” Humble says. “They associate us with a job well done, and that speaks to the quality of our education.

“AggieVision completely prepared me for the real world,” he continues. “Without it I wouldn’t be at ESPN right now.”

For more information about AggieVision visit www.aggievision.tv.