Athletic Threats

Overall Research Idea

Within college athletics, many sources collect data from student-athletes. In some cases, this is public information, however many metrics are collected during practices and games that use equipment that may reveal sensitive information. Keeping this data secure is important to protect student-athletes, coaching secrets, and the integrity of athletics for fair competition and gambling environments. We explore these risks, and existing data management solutions to understand the needs and considerations for data management in college athletics.

Current Work

• Categorized data collected by one athletic program
• Preliminary flow chart for how data flows through the organization
• Categorized different threats to coaches, student-athletes, and administration

Highlight Figures

Technology procurement and data flow

Technology can be implemented in athletics on a variety of levels, from individual coaches, athletic departments, specific departments, or directly from an athlete. Data created by these different tools flows to various entities including third party providers demonstrating a broad threat landscape.

Uses of athlete data

Within college athletics, data can have positive impacts on training effictivness as well as administratively. However, the introduction of novel data sources also present risk to student-athletes, coaches, and the overarching organizations that govern athletics.

Action Plan

Our next steps include:

• Finalize and validate the accuracy of our technology
• First-hand discussions to understand design considerations and unique organizational traits for college athletics
• Propose a management strategy that accounts for the fast-paced, dynamic environment of college athletics