Eli Lederman is a national recruiting and college football reporter for ESPN, where he brings sharp storytelling and deep curiosity to coverage of the sport’s most compelling people and trends. Lederman joined ESPN in 2024 and reports on the nation’s top high school football prospects while also covering key programs and broader developments across the college football landscape.

Based in Oklahoma City, Lederman contributes regularly to ESPN’s multi-sport reporting efforts, including the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the Women’s College World Series. His work focuses on capturing the voices and stories that often exist beyond the sidelines — from five-star recruits like Chris Henry Jr. and Jahkeem Stewart, to a feature on the retirement home from which Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy records his weekly radio show, to an in-depth look at how recruiting is evolving at the Group of 5 level. Whether spotlighting emerging stars or uncovering stories from college football’s quieter corners, Lederman is drawn to the people behind the game and the cultural landscape that surrounds it.

Before joining ESPN, Lederman covered both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State football across separate runs at the Tulsa World and Sellout Crowd, where he chronicled the final three Bedlam rivalry games between the in-state foes from 2021 to 2023. His career has also included reporting roles with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Columbia Missourian, with highlights such as profiles on Brent Venables, Mike Leach, and Doc Sadler — the longtime basketball coach who once lived in a van outside Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center. In 2022, Lederman contributed to coverage of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, filing pieces on Tiger Woods, Viktor Hovland, and the growing presence of alcohol sales in major golf events.

A graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Lederman has received national recognition for his work, including top-10 honors from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) for beat writing in 2023 and first place in Sports Reporting at the 2022 Great Plains Journalism Awards.

Originally from Mamaroneck, New York, Lederman remains a devoted fan of the New York Mets, Tottenham Hotspur F.C., and global soccer. In his free time, he plays in a local indoor soccer league.