The Colorado State Athletic Department decided to discontinue the live streaming of Deion Sanders’ weekly coaches show last fall after the name of a prominent football recruit was mentioned on the show in violation of NCAA rules. Two episodes of the show have been removed from YouTube, according to documents obtained by the Colorado State Athletic Department. USA Today Sports.
The minor violation occurred in November, and rookie quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis’ name surfaced before signing with the University of Colorado on Dec. 4. According to NCAA rules, schools generally cannot publicize or comment on recruits before they officially sign them. Colorado self-reported this violation and has decided to take corrective action as a result, including additional rules training for head coach Sanders and reducing the number of recruiter days for the spring 2025 contact period by four days. .
The school also agreed to “implement new organizational controls for the weekly football coaches show,” according to the school’s report on the matter. “Content will no longer be live-streamed. Therefore, the External Relations Department will be able to review and edit content that could be construed as unacceptable promotion (of new hires).”
It was one of at least six self-reported violations in the Colorado football program processed in 2024, according to records obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Before that, Colorado cleared at least 11 other self-reported minor violations in Sanders’ first year in office in December 2022.
To be clear, these types of minor infractions are fairly common in college sports and are not considered a major issue unless they become part of a larger pattern or are reported by the school after discovery. . For example, Georgia and Ohio State also each self-reported four minor violations in their football programs at various times in 2023-2024.
What exactly happened in the Julian Lewis case?
Lewis did nothing wrong. His eligibility at the University of Colorado was not affected. But since Sanders publicly announced his support for Colorado on Nov. 21, his name has appeared twice on Sanders’ weekly show on the school’s public YouTube channel.
This would have been fine if Lewis had officially signed with CU before that. The problem is, he hasn’t signed yet and wasn’t allowed to do so until Dec. 4, the first day of the early signing period.
The first mention came on Nov. 21, when Lewis announced he was transferring to Colorado State. Host Mark Johnson mentioned the big news on the show, but did not mention Lewis by name. He asked Sanders how he is involved in communicating with recruits and their families.
Sanders then gave an example of how he hired Lewis.
“Hey, call JuJu and get his pop on the phone,” Sanders said by way of example. “See if his dad wants to come down and sit down and chop it up with me.”
“I think it was a few weeks ago, he sat in my office for a few hours,” Deion Sanders said of his father on his show. “I said, ‘Hey, hey, I know you have a lot of questions, so leave it all to me. Let’s go.’ And we did that, and He walked away feeling really secure about where we were going.”
“Removed from YouTube”
The show was removed from YouTube hours later after the school became aware of the “unacceptable promotion” of unsigned recruits.
Six days later, the same Coaches show aired again, with different hosts replacing Sanders and Johnson. The host, who is not a school official, only mentioned Lewis when asking Sanders about preparation for the bowl game, which is an appropriate question for any journalist to ask. Sanders didn’t even say Lewis’ name this time, as university officials quickly interrupted the show to change the subject.
However, it was still considered inadmissible because Lewis was mentioned on the school’s coaches show.
“The program was removed from YouTube in less than an hour,” the school’s report on the matter said. The report says neither incident was intentional and “was not a direct effort to gain a recruiting advantage.” It also pointed out that Sanders and Johnson “have been trained in the past rules regarding public relations hiring.”
Self-reporting and correcting such violations is considered a sign of diligence and integrity at the NCAA, rather than covering up violations to avoid trouble. The school did not immediately provide additional comment, but said in a similar article last year that it is committed to adhering to NCAA regulations and “takes all violations seriously, regardless of severity.” “There is,” he said.
Why was this against NCAA rules?
Like many other NCAA rules, the gag order against unsigned recruits was put in place by member schools for a reason, no matter how trivial it may seem. This makes life easier for all NCAA coaches, who would otherwise feel constant pressure to publicly promote every recruit they want to sign.
“The NCAA’s Recruitment Public Relations Act was written to keep the recruiting process private between university officials and prospective student-athletes, and its primary purpose is to prevent intrusions into the lives of prospective student-athletes. “It’s about minimizing it and keeping the recruiting environment fair,” said Joshua Lenz, an associate professor at the University of Iowa who previously worked on NCAA compliance at Baylor University.
This variation of the NCAA rule has existed for decades, according to NCAA records. In 1972, the NCAA reprimanded St. John’s University after the school’s athletic department organized a press luncheon to announce the commitments of two freshmen. In 1982, the NCAA reprimanded West Virginia’s basketball coach after he participated in a press conference held by a freshman to announce his commitment to the program.
What were some of Colorado football’s other violations?
Other NCAA reports obtained by USA TODAY Sports all include minor technical rule violations, some of which occurred in 2023 but were not finally addressed until 2024. It seems like it’s gone.
In one case, a recruit signed with Colorado on Dec. 20, 2023, was vacationing in Florida and met with an active Colorado player who was in Florida at the time. The younger brother of a current Colorado player was also there and came into contact with the same recruit on Dec. 22.
However, the contact was considered minor because it took place during the NCAA’s “dead period” for recruiting, and the brothers are considered “representatives of Colorado’s athletic interests.” It was considered a violation. As a result, the school announced that it would implement rules education and shorten the number of days required for recruitment by two days.
The school’s report said it believed the contact was permissible because the brothers were not on the football staff and were not recruiting players for the University of Colorado.
In another incident in September 2023, a recruit was taken to a go-kart event for recreational purposes, which cost $67. However, according to NCAA Rule 13.6.7.4, institutions can only provide up to $60 per person to entertain prospective student-athletes. To resolve this $7 violation, the recruit was declared ineligible to compete until the money was repaid to charity.
“Rules training regarding entertainment during official visits was provided to the football recruiting staff and the entire football staff,” the school’s report states.
Other minor violations included potential recruits entering premium seating areas when they weren’t supposed to be at a football game and unacceptable supervision of contact drills by a strength and conditioning coach.
None resulted in significant penalties.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]