Colorado self-reports minor violations
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.”
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.
“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.