Colorado Admits 11 Minor NCAA Violations in Deion Sanders’s First Season, per Report

The Colorado Buffaloes football team has committed a number of small violations since the former NFL star took over the program in December 2022.

Deion Sanders quickly injected life into the Colorado football program after his hire in late 2022. While the team finished 4–8 in ’23, Sanders and his staff have almost completely flipped a roster that won just one game the season before he arrived, building one that was far more competitive this past season.

Sanders’s aggressive recruiting tactics, especially in the transfer portal, have made waves across the sport. They’ve also gotten him a bit of attention from the NCAA.

Colorado has been hit with 11 violations since hiring Sanders, according to USA Today. All of the violations are considered minor and were self-reported by the school. Violations of this nature are relatively common among top college football programs and rarely lead to significant disciplinary action by the NCAA.

Deion Sanders and his Colorado staff have been hit with a number of minor recruiting violations since he was hired in December 2022 :: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports

A number of the violations relate to recruiting activity, both on campus and on social media. A summary of all 11:

• In December ’22, Sanders’s social team posted an image depicting a spreadsheet of unsigned recruits. The post was deleted after 10 minutes.
• That same month, a high school coach sent Colorado’s staff a transcript for a player that had not yet entered the transfer portal. Colorado quickly stopped recruiting the player, per the report.
• Sanders reposted an Instagram video depicting voluntary team workouts in January ’23. The short clip was live for about 20 minutes before being pulled.
• That same month, a recruit identified by USA Today as cornerback Cormani McClain was 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 “gameday simulations. 
• A website posted the McClain picture to social media, a second violation stemming from the moment. The corner would wind up committing and played as a freshman for CU in ’23.
• Players that were not active members of the transfer portal attended a Colorado camp open to high school and transfer recruits last May. The violation led to a two-week recruiting ban in June.
• A Sanders Instagram Live session held in May added a recruit, identified by USA Today as Aaron Butler as a featured participant. Butler would commit to Colorado and later flip to Texas.
• That month, linebackers 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.”
• In August, Colorado held a team-wide yoga session led by an intern that was not one of the team’s five declared strength and conditioning coaches, violating NCAA staffing limits.
• A recruit gained impermissible access to a premium seating area at the Buffaloes’ Sept. 30 game against USC during an unofficial visit.
• Former Colorado player Matt McChesney and his son, a 2028 recruit, were present for a pregame locker room speech, and the recruit ran onto the field with the team at its October game against Stanford, violating a ban on “gameday situations.”

The minor violations have not halted Colorado’s momentum in recruiting. The program’s 2024 high school class is small but includes one of the nation’s top offensive linemen in Jordan Seaton, a key component given the team’s struggles up front in ’23. The Buffaloes also have hauled in a highly ranked group of transfers, including players from Alabama, Houston, Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma State and TCU.