BuffsBeat
Op-Ed: Colorado’s violations under Deion Sanders further prove the NCAA is an archaic organization
The NCAA is feeling the “Prime Effect,” too. Colorado and Deion Sanders got hit with 11 minor violations by the collegiate oversight committee last year.
Six of them were related to the use of social media, which shows just how outdated the NCAA continues to be. As first reported by USA TODAY, none of the violations carried any serious penalties. Here’s a breakdown of the eleven violations levied against CU.
December 2022
No. 1: Coach Prime’s social team posted an image depicting a spreadsheet of unsigned recruits. The post was deleted after 10 minutes.
No. 2: A high school coach sent a Colorado staff member a transcript for a player who had not yet entered the transfer portal. Sanders and his staff stopped pursuing the player after discovering.
January 2023
No. 3: Coach Prime reposted an Instagram video depicting voluntary team workouts. The clip was pulled 20 minutes later.
No. 4: Sanders and Cormani McClain were featured in a picture “while wearing a uniform on the field, lined up across a coaching staff member (Sanders), a violation of the ban on game day simulations.
No. 5: A website posted the McClain picture to social media, a second violation stemming from the moment with Coach Prime.
May 2023
No. 6: Colorado hosted players who were not active members of the transfer portal at a summer camp. The violation led to a two-week recruiting ban in June.
No. 7: Sanders went live on Instagram with former Buffs recruit Aaron Butler as a featured participant in the camp.
No. 8: Colorado assistant coach Andre Hart took a picture with a recruit, who posted it to social media “prior to the first permissible date to have in-person contact.”
August 2023
No. 9: Colorado held a yoga session led by an intern that was not one of the team’s five declared strength and conditioning coaches, violating NCAA staffing limits.
September 2023
No. 10: A recruit on an unofficial visit gained impermissible access to a premium seating area at CU’s game vs. USC.
October 2023
No. 11: Colorado alum Matt McChesney and his son, who wasn’t enrolled in high school and was called a class of 2028 recruit by the NCAA, were present for a pregame locker room speech. McChesney’s son ran behind Ralphie and the team before the Stanford game. It violated the ban on “game day situations.”
As Joel Klatt once said about the NCAA, they’re “the worst organization” he can think of. It was statement the FOX Sports broadcaster and CU alum put out eight years ago and still applies today.
“Their mission statement is to be there for the well-being of the student-athlete, to protect the student-athlete,” said Klatt. “What it’s morphed into is a governing body that has rules and regulations that are specifically to contain the student athlete.”
The last line will only get worse, with the NCAA attempting to further put clamps on social media activities. For the good of the players, we have to ask ourselves, is this really the same group we want involved with NIL regulations? Yes, there needs to be some type of oversight committee established, but the NCAA isn’t the one.
Who cares if Coach Prime lined up against Cormani McClain in a “game day simulation” for a photo on the field. He earned the right to meet the Hall-of-Famer, and the two shared a moment. Trust me, there are no recruits out there desperately trying to take a picture with Dan Lanning or Jay Norvell. If it happens for them on a visit, then it becomes a post on media post but not a noteworthy event with a football great.
Whether the NCAA wants to believe it or not, college football became must-see TV this past year because of one person. And we all know he “Ain’t hard to find.”