Zoë Comerford, Comm ’21, breathes sports. She always has. So, it was a big deal for her to be courtside last spring covering her first men’s basketball Final Four for CBS Sports. “It was Jim Nantz’s last Final Four. It was one of the best experiences of my career,” she says. From witnessing the San Diego State buzzer beater over Florida Atlantic to filming UConn’s Dan Hurley cut the 2023 championship net, Comerford captured every prime-time moment.
One of the youngest hires ever at the Marquette Wire, Comerford arrived weeks before the start of her freshman year to cover tennis, her childhood passion. By her junior year, she was executive sports editor and covering basketball. Although the pandemic derailed the Big East Tournament, a much-anticipated coverage opportunity, she learned to explore less-familiar storylines and found audiences cared about players’ lives on and off the court. An influential pairing with then-Chicago Cubs, now-Chicago White Sox announcer Len Kasper, Comm ’93, through Marquette Mentors reinforced this nuanced approach.
After Marquette, Comerford landed an extended internship with ESPN. Now social media producer for college basketball at CBS Sports, Comerford lives for moments just like the one pictured above — at the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball championship game.
Now she’s the wizard behind the screen of CBS Sports College Basketball on Instagram, TikTok, Threads and YouTube Shorts, drawing on her Marquette experiences to drive impressive follower growth. “Recently, KJ Adams, a Kansas Jayhawk, gave a game-winning performance in the face of flying home the next day for his mother’s funeral. I shared that story,” she says. “You’re not always going to get those humanistic storylines from other outlets.”
While her schedule is intense — she works nearly every single night shift from November through March — she loves her beat and owns every post. “These are not just game recaps for me. They’re about truly connecting.”
