Sending fans a ticket offer for the game they will most want to attend. Measuring an athlete’s biometrics to maximize their on-field performance. Pitt is joining the pro ranks in harnessing the power of data to support Athletics operations.

Warm Up

After seeing the tedious process of manually tracking finances via Excel, Richard Turnquist, director of Athletics business services, approached Athletics CFO Ryan Varley to propose a real-time budgeting dashboard that would allow coaches to check current and prior year budgets with ease. Varley was immediately sold on the idea and approached Athletics leadership for their support. “Pitt Athletics is always looking for opportunities to be an industry leader, and data analytics is the next frontier in nearly all facets of our business. It was a no-brainer,” says Chris Hoppe, executive associate athletic director.

Game Time

Creating a budgeting tool that could serve each of Pitt’s 19 intercollegiate teams was a huge undertaking, and Turnquist was the only person on the Athletics team with a background in analytics. Varley had heard about One IT @ Pitt, which encourages departmental IT teams to partner with Pitt IT.

Transitioning Turnquist to the Pitt IT Analytics team gave him access to a team of experienced data scientists and analytics professionals. “By combining our resources and expertise, we developed a roadmap that sets us up for success. I’m not sure I could have done it in a silo,” says Turnquist. In 2018, Turnquist released the Budget Dashboard. It was so effective and easy to use that people soon started asking for even more information to be presented in this format.

Half Time

With the success of the budget dashboard, the team started developing tools to support marketing and revenue generation. By integrating ticketing, merchandising, facility, and other data, they created a 360-degree customer view. “

They unveiled the Constituent Profile in Fall 2021, with full deployment in April 2023. The team is now planning tools to support on-field personnel, from leveraging in-game data to adjust play-calling and support recruitment, to using biometric data to maximize athlete performance.

Victory Lap

Turning athletic data into actionable information is a brave new world at the collegiate level. “As you prove the value of the concept, you increase buy-in across the department. The more we do, the more each team sees the tangible benefits, and they start to ask for even more,” Varley explains.

It's a concept that applies to far more than Athletics. “Athletics isn't as unique as people may think. Everyone is looking at how to use data to make more informed choices,” Turnquist says. To explore how data can help your department up its game, contact Pitt IT Analytics by submitting an IT Service Request.