BOULDER, COLORADO – OCTOBER 13: Head coach Deion Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes walks on the field during pregame against the Stanford Cardinal at Folsom Field on October 13, 2023 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Deion Sanders has completed his first season in charge of the Colorado Buffaloes, going 4-8 after a hot 3-0 start that made them the most popular program in the country.

As we all saw, it was far from a perfect season for Coach Prime and the Buffs, who are also reportedly facing 11 NCAA violations. Fortunately, they are all minor and shouldn’t land them in any serious trouble.

 

Per USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer, Colorado self-reported all of the violations, “none of which risked any serious penalties.” He added that the likes of Ohio State and Alabama also reported minor infractions, which are commonplace among football teams.
“In this case, the violations under Sanders provide a window into how his frequent activity on social media sometimes tested technical bylaws,” the report reads. “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.’”

The most serious of the violations resulted from Primetime’s activity in the transfer portal. CU hosted a camp featuring over 350 invitees, but seven of the athletes were not actively in the portal, which amounts to tampering.

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The program self-imposed a mid-summer recruiting ban, as well as a one-day ban on portal activity in December.

Sanders also improperly posted team workouts to his Instagram account leading to most of the other violations.

Given that they were all self-reported, the NCAA isn’t expected to take a hard view.