Zain Bando covers college football as a freelance writer for The Sporting News. The Illinois native graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
Bando focuses primarily on Big Ten coverage while also writing about Illinois, Northwestern and Kansas State athletics.
He’s a member of both the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Beyond college sports, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated. He hosts two weekly podcasts on the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – “Bando’s Breakdowns” and “The MMA Outsiders” – which stream on YouTube and all podcast platforms.
Since 2019, his work has appeared across multiple platforms including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network, Mike Farrell Sports and Reuters.
When not writing, Bando watches old UFC fights, spends time with family, memorizes Super Bowl history and plans his next travel destinations – laptop always in tow.
