079 Michael Vardzell CEO of AithELITE  on The Future of College SportsTech

Michael Vardzell is the President of AithELITE  and a former Division I football player at University of Pittsburgh who is now building technology at the center of one of the biggest transformations in college sports.After playing at Pitt and coaching at Wofford College, Michael saw firsthand how difficult roster management, recruiting, compliance, NIL, and financial decision-making had become for athletic departments navigating the modern college sports landscape. That experience led him to launch AithELITE, an AI-powered data intelligence platform helping schools unify recruiting, roster, academic, financial, and performance data into one centralized system.In this episode, we break down how NIL, the transfer portal, and revenue sharing are forcing college programs to operate more like professional sports organizations, why athletic directors now need tools that resemble an NFL front office, and how technology can help coaches and administrators make smarter, faster decisions.Michael also shares lessons from building a sports tech startup in the college athletics ecosystem, why relationships and credibility matter in sports business, and how Aithelite has already scaled across 23 Division I football programs.