What if one of the most natural NIL opportunities on campus was already part of a student-athlete’s daily routine?

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In this episode of NIL Edge, Sterling Randle speaks with Matthew Stern, Vice Chancellor for Business Services at the University of Pittsburgh, and John Longo, Vice President of Operations for Pitt Eats, powered by Chartwells Higher Education.

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Matthew and John explain how Pitt and Chartwells brought student-athletes into the university’s dining program, allowing them to build meals around the foods they actually eat and create content in their own voices. One athlete-created meal, the TT Bowl, became one of the program’s most popular offerings.

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They also discuss how Pitt’s auxiliary services, athletics, legal and compliance teams, and Chartwells worked together to launch the initiative, how they are measuring its performance and why existing campus services could provide schools with new ways to create relevant NIL opportunities.

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In this episode:

• How the Pitt Eats NIL initiative began
• Why student-athletes are effective peer-to-peer messengers
• Creating athlete-led content that feels authentic
• Measuring sales, engagement and student satisfaction
• How one creative AthleteCon video generated 100,000 views within hours
• The importance of collaboration across campus
• What other universities and vendors can learn from Pitt’s approach

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‍Watch or listen to the full episode below. All episodes are available to watch on Youtube and listen on Spotify. NIL Edge is also available on Apple and NIL Newsstand.

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The NIL landscape is evolving fast. This is where leaders come to get the edge.

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