It sounds like Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders broke an NCAA rule last fall related to his recruitment of a high-profile quarterback.
According to documents obtained by USA Today, Deion Sanders committed a minor recruiting violation when he mentioned quarterback recruit Julian “JuJu” Lewis by name during his weekly coaches show, which was live-streamed by the team.
Lewis was mentioned twice on the show, which is a violation of NCAA rules which prohibit schools from publicizing or commenting on a recruit before an officially signing.
The first mention of Lewis came when the show’s host asked about his recent commitment to Colorado – tactfully failed to mention Lewis by name. Sanders, however, was not as careful.
“Hey, get JuJu on the phone and get his pop on the phone,” Sanders said as an example according to USA Today. “See if his dad want to come down and just sit down and chop it up with me.”
“He sat in my office I think a few weeks ago for a couple hours,” Deion Sanders said on the show about the father. “I said, `C,mon, give it all to me because I know you’ve got a bunch of questions on your mind. Let’s go.’ And we did that. And he walked away feeling really comfortable about where we’re headed.”
The show was removed from YouTube a few hours later when the school realized the violation. The second violation occurred just a week later when a different host asked Sanders a question about Lewis, mentioning him by name. Even though Sanders did not reference Lewis by name, the reporter did – leading to a violation.
While this all is technically a violation of NCAA rules, it’s worth noting these types of minor violations are fairly common in college sports and teams typically do not receive much – if any – punishment unless they become part of a bigger pattern or are go unreported.
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