Texas A&M head football coach Mike Elko may have ventured onto financially sensitive ground when he lashed out at the Aggies’ largest fan site.
During post-game remarks following Texas A&M’s 27-6 loss Saturday at then-No. 14 Missouri, Elko took aim at negative posters on TexAgs.com, deriding the website as “Billy’s cesspool” in a pointed reference to its co-owner and executive editor Billy Liucci.
Elko subsequently apologized for the remarks, saying he regretted his response to a press conference question “in the heat of the moment,” while emphasizing his “tremendous relationship with Billy.”
But Elko’s personal connection to Liucci is only part of the story. Liucci’s company, Maroon & White LP, which publishes TexAgs and operates several related ventures, also has a substantial financial relationship with Texas A&M’s primary athletic resource development vehicle, the 12th Man Foundation.
According to its latest tax filings, the 12th Man Foundation paid Maroon & White LP $6.28 million in the fiscal year 2025 for “external marketing services.” That made Maroon & White the 12th Man’s highest-paid independent contractor.
The nature and scope of those services are unclear. Liucci and a 12th Man spokesperson did not respond to emails seeking comment and clarification.
The 12th Man Foundation, a legally separate nonprofit, serves as the chief fundraising arm and official ticket provider of Texas A&M Athletics, transferring more than $72 million to the school in FY25 to pay for “scholarships, programs and facilities.” The organization also supplied $19.4 million in unrestricted donor funds to cover the initial buyout payment due to former head football coach Jimbo Fisher, Elko’s predecessor and former boss.
Maroon & White LP’s relationship with the 12th Man Foundation is longstanding, though the scale of the payments appears to have increased of late. In FY24, the foundation reported paying $1.12 million to the publishing platform. The relationship dates to at least 2011, when the parties announced a marketing accord that offered shared benefits to 12th Man Foundation donors and TexAgs premium subscribers.
TexAgs’ connections to the university’s athletic ecosystem extend to the name, image and likeness world, as well. TexAgs has partnered with Texas Aggies United, Texas A&M’s official NIL partner, to provide “content production, technology, administrative, marketing, and athlete activation support and services.” Although there are no known direct financial partnerships between the university and TexAgs, in 2021, the website paid $10,000 for exclusive media access to two Aggies football players. The deal was reportedly the first publicly known NIL-media-access agreement of its kind.
TexAgs’ media kit claims monthly web traffic of 400,000 unique site visitors and 32 million page views. In 2008, the website merged with a printed newsletter, Maroon & White Report, which Liucci was editing at the time. According to the site’s masthead, the operation—including its video production arm, Texas FilmWorks—employs a staff of more than 40.
Liucci initially reacted to Elko’s remarks with anger. In a TexAgs interview conducted before the coach walked back his comments, Liucci admitted to being “red-hot pissed off for about an hour.”
He added: “When you lose the [Missouri] game the way A&M did, and when the season is going the way it did, and it’s a response in a press conference and you don’t have time to have a deep, nuanced conversation to really, truly explain what you mean and what’s in your heart…you are running a really high risk of alienating the people who fill up the stadium.”
Liucci later revealed on Barstool Sports’ Wake Up Barstool podcast that it was former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, of all people, who helped calm him down.