From the College Athletics edition of October 3, 2026
SportsHCI study maps seven continuous-wearable information flows in NCAA DI and flags intrusive sleep/recovery auto-share
University of Florida / SportsHCI 2025 (ACM) · Collegiate sports science / SportsHCI privacy · United States (NCAA Division I interview sample)
- Publisher
- SportsHCI 2025 / ACM
- Original publication
- November 17–19, 2025 (SportsHCI 2025 proceedings)
- Source retrieved
- 2026-10-04
- Event date
- 2025-11-17
What happened
Childs, Brewer, Thomas et al. analyzed 15 semi-structured interviews with elite U.S. collegiate student-athletes using contextual integrity and identified seven information flows for continuous wearable data among coaches, athletes, teammates/peers, family, and others. Athletes described need-to-know and coach-requested sharing of physiological metrics, automatic post-workout uploads via platforms such as Garmin Clipboard, and stronger discomfort with automatic sleep/recovery sharing (e.g., WHOOP). Authors recommend aligning privacy protections with sport-tech adoption; limitations include organic (not wearable-focused) prompts and a single DI context with women’s-sport skew.
Why it matters
Why now: After 2026-10-01/10-02 wearable-injury ML caution and NCAA performance-tech governance coverage, this previously unarchived SportsHCI paper supplies athlete-side sharing norms that operationalize consent, purpose limits, and selective mute—directly informing DI wearable AI deployments.
Evidence and measured results
Opened author PDF reports methods (15 interviews; contextual integrity coding), seven flows (coach/athlete/network receivers), automatic workout upload (TP4) vs intrusive recovery/sleep concerns, limitations section, and NSF/UF AI-Powered Athletics funding acknowledgments. DOI 10.1145/3749385.3749387.
Limitations and uncertainty
Qualitative n=15; single DI program ecology; wearable mentions emerged organically; not a security penetration test; preprint-marked author PDF mirrored to ACM proceedings.
Put this evidence to work
Lighthouse Advisory interpretation, grounded in this source. Enriched 2026-10-03; this does not change the original publication date. Each role follows the same checklist so takeaways compare across sources.
Sales
Role takeaway
- Customer problem
- Wearable vendors push always-on coach dashboards while student-athletes report intrusive sleep/recovery sharing and unclear purposes.
- Stakeholders
- Sports science
- Head coaches
- Student-athlete advisory
- Privacy/compliance
- Vendor CSM
- Discovery questions
- Which metrics auto-upload today?
- Can athletes mute sleep/recovery without leaving the team system?
- What purpose statement exists for resting HR requests?
- Value hypothesis
- Mapping and constraining wearable information flows can reduce privacy friction while preserving coach-mediated load decisions if sleep/recovery are not default-shared.
- Potential engagement
- Two-week information-flow inventory and consent redesign for one DI program’s wearable stack.
- Unsupported claims
- Performance guarantees
- One-size NCAA policy
- That athletes want coaches to see all WHOOP streams
Pre-sales engineering
Role takeaway
- Fit
- Privacy/control layer over continuous wearables in NCAA DI—not a new sensor.
- Architecture and integration
- Vendor APIs → team hub with per-metric sharing flags, purpose tags, and athlete mute; coach RBAC; audit log.
- Prerequisites
- Vendor share controls
- Written purposes
- Athlete UX
- Staff training
- Constraints
- n=15 interviews
- One DI context
- Women’s-sport skew
- Organic wearable mentions
- Security
- Default-deny continuous recovery/sleep to coaches; encrypt biometrics; revoke on roster exit.
- Proof of value
- Completed flow map
- Mute latency <60s
- Athlete-reported clarity of purpose
Delivery
Role takeaway
- Work
- Catalog flows, update consent, configure vendor defaults, coach briefing, athlete Q&A.
- Dependencies
- Vendor admin access
- Privacy counsel
- SAAC input
- S&C buy-in
- Ownership
- Performance director owns operational sharing; privacy office owns policy.
- Skills and adoption
- Train coaches to request metrics with stated purpose and accept athlete-initiated need-to-know shares.
- Governance checkpoints
- Consent approval
- 30-day athlete feedback
- Quarterly flow audit
- Acceptance criteria
- Written flow inventory
- Sleep/recovery default-off or documented exception
- Athlete mute path tested
- Risks
- Culture of forced always-on
- Punishment for muting
- Peer dashboard pressure
Implementation considerations
Lighthouse Advisory interpretation across the operating dimensions a public-sector buyer must settle before this evidence becomes a design. Each note answers the question under its heading for this specific source.
Architecture and integration
What must connect, and where does the AI sit in the workflow?
Team wearable hubs must separate workout auto-upload from continuous recovery/sleep streams, expose athlete mute/hide, and log coach views rather than assuming always-on dashboards.
Governance
Who approves, reviews and stays accountable for outcomes?
Write purpose statements per metric; treat sleep/recovery auto-share as high-risk; involve SAAC when peer WHOOP/Strava groups create secondary audiences.
Security and privacy
What data, permissions and controls need testing?
Continuous physiological and sleep data are sensitive; prefer need-to-know transmission; constrain vendor secondary use; enable revoke without leaving the roster tool.
Accessibility and workforce
Who is affected, and what skills or accommodations follow?
Controls and mute UX must be usable under practice time pressure; staff need privacy literacy alongside sports-science literacy.
Procurement
What should contracts, pricing and exit terms secure?
Score wearable vendors on per-metric sharing defaults, mute, and audit logs—not only recovery-model marketing claims.
Operating model
Which teams own the service once it runs?
Shifts performance ops from ambient surveillance toward purpose-bound coach requests and athlete-initiated shares.
Publication history
- 2026-10-03College Athletics · Issue 275 resources
Stable resource ID: childs-wearables-info-flow-sportshci-2025