Coach Deion Sanders and his Colorado football program got dinged for 11 minor NCAA violations since his hiring in December 2022, including some that show how the prolific use of social media by a coach sometimes can get tripped up by the 452-page NCAA rulebook.
USA TODAY Sports obtained documentation of the violations, all of which were self-reported by the university to the NCAA and none of which risked any serious penalties.
To be clear, such minor violations are common in virtually every major college athletic department, such as at Ohio State, which reported two minor violations in football in 2022-23, and Alabama, which self-reported nine minor violations that same year, including none in football. Self-reporting them is considered a positive sign of diligence and integrity, as opposed to not reporting them at all to avoid scrutiny. All appear to be inadvertent violations of an NCAA rulebook that can be highly complex.
In this case, the violations under Sanders provide a window into how his frequent activity on social media sometimes tested technical bylaws. Colorado’s transfer-heavy recruiting approach under Sanders also clashed at times with NCAA regulations.
In one case, a security breakdown led to an impermissible “gameday simulation” for a recruit, followed by a write-up from the NCAA that said “future similar violations may result in more significant penalties including suspension of the head coach from a contest.”
Colorado self-reported at least 16 minor violations overall in athletics discovered since December 2022, including the 11 in football, according to the documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Colorado issued a statement when asked for comment from Sanders and the university:
‘The University of Colorado Boulder Athletic Department is committed to complying with NCAA regulations and will continue to educate our coaches, student-athletes, and staff to ensure that we remain in compliance, ‘the statement said. ‘We take all infractions seriously, regardless of the severity, and in these specific cases, these minor infractions were all self-reported to the NCAA.’
Here is a summary of the issues:
Transfer portal violation
On May 30, Colorado hosted a postgraduate camp that was open to recent high school graduates and transfers from other colleges who had entered the transfer portal. More than 350 players participated, but the university later identified seven that did not have an “active” status in the transfer portal, violating rule 13.1.1.3, which prohibits tampering with a transfer prospect who is not officially in the portal. The violation was discovered when another NCAA institution reported that one of their players participated in the camp without first providing notification of transfer.
As a penalty, the school imposed a two-week recruiting ban from all recruiting activity from June 15 to June 28 and a one-day recruiting ban on all recruiting activity with transfer recruits beginning on the first day of the portal window in December 2023. The recruits in question were mostly from smaller colleges and were declared permanently ineligible at Colorado. Rules education was ordered for the football staff.
“While this is a violation of NCAA Bylaw 13.1.1.3, the intent was not to solicit enrollment to CU Boulder prior to a student-athlete entering the transfer portal,” the school reported. “The communications with the participants was limited and only occurred related to camp participation. We believe that this violation should be viewed more as a procedural issue, as opposed to a tampering violation.”
The problem stemmed from not forcing camp participants to certify they were in the transfer portal.
“There were no additional procedures in place to prevent participants who did not meet the camp requirements from participating,” the report stated.
Deion Sanders’ Instagram violation
In May 2023, all Colorado football coaches were removed from recruiting duties on the road and no recruiting evaluations were allowed for a week as a penalty for violation that occurred on May 16.
That’s when Sanders was hosting an Instagram Live session on his Instagram account and a recruiting prospect was featured in the livestream. The recruit’s name was redacted in documents from the university, but USA TODAY Sports has identified him as receiver Aaron Butler, who orally committed to play for Sanders on that livestream before later changing his mind and signing with Texas last month.
Sanders didn’t have a public conversation with Butler, but he was a featured participant for about two minutes, which violates NCAA rule 13.10.1.2, a bylaw that prohibits recruits from being involved in media activity conducted by a school’s head coach.
After being alerted to the live stream, Colorado’s rules compliance staffer, Chase Meyer, called to have the activity stopped.
Ironically, Sanders indicated at the time that he couldn’t say the recruit’s name or talk about the recruit on the Instagram livestream because that would have violated NCAA rules. Sanders’ son Bucky filmed Sanders reaction then after Butler committed to play for him.
“I can’t talk, because it’s a violation,” Sanders said then. “I can’t talk, but I can jump and clap, right, Bucky? I can shout, right?”
A two-week recruiting ban on this recruit also was imposed at Colorado.
Security breakdown before game
Colorado played a home game against Stanford Oct. 13, when former Colorado player Matt McChesney went to the game with his son, a recruit for the class of 2028. Both were on the field before the game and then were escorted off the field before kickoff. But what happened next violated an NCAA rule that limits what a recruit can do on an unofficial visit, including a prohibition on “gameday simulations,” such as running onto the field with the team during pregame introductions.
After being escorted off the field, the report said the former player and his son entered the locker room for the pregame speeches by the football coaching staff.
McChesney “is well known and told security that they were permitted to entire the tunnel and also the lockerroom,” said the school’s report. “The football coaching staff was not involved and was in the midst of pre-game preparations and did not know (McChesney and son) were in the lockerroom. Following the speeches, he exited with the football team as they ran out onto the field, triggering a gameday simulation violation.”
As a result, CU’s report said the former player had field access revoked for the rest of the season and rules education was provided to the football staff.
“An institutional staff member that has been educated on the rules related to gameday simulation is now standing and monitoring the tunnel for prospective student-athletes prior to the team taking the field during each home game,” the school’s report stated.
The NCAA noted that Colorado should be required to count the impermissible activity as a contact with the recruit and reduce the remaining number of future contacts by one
“The football program should reduce 2023-24 recruiting-person days by two,” the NCAA said in the case summary. “Future similar violations may result in more significant penalties including suspension of the head coach from a contest.”
The school’s report said a “breakdown in security measures is what lead to the violation occurring.”
Asked for further comment, McChesney told USA TODAY Sports he’s been going to games for years and noted that his son is a recruit.
Social media team violation
On Dec. 28, 2022, Sanders’ social media team posted an image on Twitter that showed a spreadsheet of recruiting prospects, violating rule 13.10.1, which prohibits a school from publicizing recruits before they officially sign with the school.
“The intent of the post was not to publicize the recruitment of the listed (recruits), because the majority of the (recruits) posted are not being recruited by CU; the intent was to show (recruits) that they were not being ignored,” Colorado’s report said.
The violation was discovered through routine social media monitoring, leading the spreadsheet to be removed after 10 minutes. As a penalty for the violation, rules education rules education on social media was provided to the football coaching staff and the head coach’s social media team.
Another Instagram violation
In January 2023, Sanders reposted a video on Instagram of his team engaged in voluntary activities, violating NCAA rule 17.02.19, which regulates voluntary workouts and prohibits recording players’ participation in such workouts “for the purposes of reporting such information to coaching staff members or other student-athletes.”
“The activity would have been permitted had the video not been posted to social media,” the school’s report states.
The video clip was less than 30 seconds long and was posted for about 20 minutes.
As a penalty, Colorado’s countable athletic activities were reduced by 30 minutes at the first opportunity and rules education on voluntary activities and social media was provided to the football staff, according to the school’s report.
Previous forbidden gameday simulation
In January 2023, a recruiting prospect made an official visit to Colorado and participated in a “gameday simulation” that is forbidden by rule 13.6.7.9. That rule states that a school may not permit a recruit on an official visit to engage in any gameday simulations, such as running onto the field with the team during pregame introductions. The recruit’s name was redacted from the report, but USA TODAY Sports has identified him as cornerback Cormani McClain.
“The prospective student-athlete was lined up in an athletic stance, while wearing a uniform on the field, lined up across a coaching staff member (Sanders),” the report stated. The report noted a third-party website posted the simulation on social media, which ran afoul of another NCAA rule that prohibits publicity of official recruiting visits.
“The head coach historically poses like this with celebrities and others as he was a former professional cornerback,” according to documents in the case. “The head coach was not aware that this would trigger a gameday simulation.”
McClain signed with Colorado last February.
As a result of the violation, rules education was provided to the coaching staff and creative team. The total number of permissible contacts with the recruit was reduced by one. The NCAA also noted Colorado should be required to reduce football evaluation days in 2022-23 by three.
“The coaching staff should note that future similar violations may result in more significant penalties including suspension of the involved staff member and/or head coach from a contest,” NCAA staff said in a case summary.
Another transfer portal issue
Just a few days after Sanders was hired at Colorado in December 2022, a high school coach submitted an academic transcript for a transfer recruit, Joshua Kelly, even though Kelly had not yet entered the transfer portal. This risked violating the NCAA rule against tampering.
“The transcript was received by the CU Boulder football staff and submitted to compliance so that an academic evaluation could be performed,” the school’s report states. “Upon receiving the transcript, the Office of Compliance Services (OCS) informed the football staff that the student had not yet submitted his notification of transfer request. OCS then immediately required that the football staff permanently stop recruiting Kelly and that all communication be ceased. There was zero direct communication with Kelly.”
The school noted that “minimal recruiting advantage was gained” because the recruitment of Kelly was immediately stopped.
Rules education on tampering and transfer recruiting rules was provided to the entire football staff as a result. The NCAA noted that Colorado should be prevented from calling or sending correspondence to the recruit for one week.
Impermissible contact with recruit
Colorado linebackers coach Andre’ Hart was evaluating a spring game for recruiting on May 19 when a recruit asked to take a picture with him, which then was posted to social media by the recruit. This was deemed to be “impermissible contact with a prospective student-athlete prior to the first permissible date to have in-person contact.”
Hart asked the recruit to remove the picture and self-reported the violation. In consequence, this led to the reduction of two contacts with the recruit, a reduction of six recruiting person days during the 2023-24 recruiting year and rules education for the football staff.
Yoga coach violation
On Aug. 16, a strength and conditioning intern conducted a team-wide yoga session with the football team that lasted 30 minutes, according to the report. The intern was not one of the five declared strength and conditioning coaches, causing the football staff to exceed the NCAA limit of strength coaches by one.
The associate athletic director for compliance discovered the violation after being told that the football team was holding a yoga session before a preseason practice. As a result, countable athletic activities were reduced by one hour on Aug. 17 and rules education was provided to the strength staff and football staff on Aug. 16. The NCAA also said a letter of admonishment should be issued to the person responsible for the violation.
Premium seating access by recruit
A recruit made an unofficial visit to Colorado on Sept. 30, when the Buffaloes hosted Southern California, but ran afoul of NCAA rules that limited entertainment and tickets on recruiting visits. That’s because he gained access to a premium seating area after leaving a bathroom and then showing his lanyard to a security guard. The value of a ticket in this area is $475, according to the report.
“The violation was discovered because the (recruit) posted a video of himself in the area watching the game,” the report stated.
As a result, rules education was conducted with the football staff, “with a more in-depth education session targeted to recruiting staff,” the report said. “A reminder on credentials was issued to the security team that staffs the area. Additional monitoring of this premium area by compliance staff will occur throughout the remaining home football games. The (recruit) has been declared ineligible until a repayment ($475) is made.”
Why these minor NCAA violations matter
If Colorado and other schools didn’t report such minor infractions, they could get in more trouble later if it’s discovered they failed to monitor and report them. In another case, Colorado self-reported a clerical issue that resulted from changing football coaches in late 2022. The designated eight weeks of discretionary time for players were not placed on file in writing prior to Jan. 1, 2023, as required. Such reporting matters, even if the rules seem small and obscure.
“Issues can really arise when Level III (minor) violations are undiscovered, unaddressed, and/or consistently pertain to the same bylaw,” said Joshua Lens, an assistant professor at Arkansas who previously worked in NCAA rules compliance at Baylor.
At the same time, some coaches stay off social media and avoid any possible rules entanglements there. Others are more engaged, believing the rewards exceed such risks.
“It’s reasonable to expect a coach who’s active on social media will be at risk for implicating more NCAA rules than coaches without social media accounts since there are so many rules that social media activity can trigger,” Lens said.
NCAA rules require such self-reporting. Evidence of this reporting also shows the school is maintaining institutional control of athletics.
‘This demonstrates the effectiveness of our established compliance systems which are the basis of our department’s positive partnership with the NCAA,’ Colorado said in its statement.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com