NIL Edge
What Pitt's Campus Dining Program Can Teach Us About NIL
Matthew Sterne and John Longo join Sterling Randle to explain how Pitt and Chartwells Higher Education turned campus dining into an authentic NIL opportunity built around athlete-created meals, performance nutrition and the student experience.
Presented in partnership with Digital Sport by Hot Paper Lantern ↗
What if one of the most natural NIL opportunities on a college campus was already part of a student-athlete's daily routine?
At the University of Pittsburgh, Pitt and Chartwells Higher Education found that opportunity in campus dining.
In this episode of The NIL Edge, host Sterling Randle sits down with Matthew Sterne, 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. They explain how the organizations worked together to create athlete-sponsored menu items, connect performance nutrition with NIL and give student-athletes the freedom to tell authentic stories about what they actually eat.
What This Episode Covers
✓ How Pitt and Chartwells identified campus dining as a natural NIL opportunity
✓ Why the program began with meals student-athletes were already eating
✓ How athletes helped create and promote their own signature menu items
✓ Why athlete freedom and authentic storytelling were central to the campaign
✓ How the athlete-created TT Bowl became one of the program's most popular offerings
✓ The roles of athletics, campus services, legal teams and dining leadership
✓ How NIL can strengthen connections between athletes and the broader student body
✓ What other universities and campus vendors can learn from Pitt's model
Matthew Sterne
Vice Chancellor for Business Services, University of Pittsburgh
Matthew oversees the University of Pittsburgh's auxiliary operations, including housing, dining, campus retail, transportation and other services that shape the student experience. He explains how Pitt approached the NIL initiative as a collaboration across university departments and why campus services can play an important role in creating meaningful opportunities for student-athletes.
John Longo
Vice President of Operations, Pitt Eats — Powered by Chartwells Higher Education
John shares how the Pitt Eats team translated the idea into an operating dining program, from working directly with student-athletes to developing signature meals and promoting those offerings across campus. He also discusses why the most effective concepts were rooted in athletes' real habits, personalities and experiences with campus dining.
NIL opportunities do not always have to begin with an outside brand, a national advertising campaign or a traditional endorsement deal. Some of the most relevant opportunities may already exist within the everyday student experience.
Pitt's campus dining initiative shows how universities and their service partners can identify those opportunities by paying attention to what athletes already use, where they already spend their time and which stories they can tell authentically.
The conversation also demonstrates what cross-campus NIL collaboration can look like. Athletics, business services, dining operations and legal teams worked together to build a program that created value for student-athletes while supporting nutrition education, campus engagement and the broader student experience.
The NIL Edge
The NIL Edge is NILNewsstand's interview series featuring the athletes, brands and college athletics leaders shaping the future of NIL, revenue sharing and the new era of college athletics.
The series is hosted by Sterling Randle and presented in partnership with Digital Sport by Hot Paper Lantern .
