Colorado football dinged for two minor NCAA infractions, including help from NFL Hall of Famer

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

In August 2025, several news media outlets used their social media accounts to share what seemed like a cool new recruiting tactic being used by Colorado under football coach Deion Sanders.

It showed the school was recruiting players by sending a scholarship offer along with a surprise gift — custom-made trading cards of the recruits themselves.

“Discover Colorado’s exceptional recruiting strategy featuring a tailored trading card for prospective players,” ESPN’s TikTok account said.

But there was one problem with that: It was an NCAA rules violation.

Colorado had to stop sending the cards and even had to require any of the recruits who enrolled at the school to make restitution for the cards valued at $31.59 each, according to NCAA reports recently obtained by USA TODAY Sports. It was one of two self-reported violations of minor NCAA rules for Colorado football in 2025, according to the school. The other apparently involved former NFL player Devin Hester, who briefly gave “impermissible” instruction to Colorado receiver LaJohntay Wester at a Colorado practice in 2024 — but which wasn’t discovered by the school until 2025.

The reports show how internal policing is carried out with even the most minor NCAA infractions. They also help illustrate why such seemingly trivial regulations exist in the first place as other NCAA rules remain the subject of hot debate in Congress and the courts.

What are Colorado football’s NCAA violations?

Virtually every school self-reports minor “Level III” violations like this every year, many of which stem from honest mistakes. Last year for example, Alabama self-reported six minor violations in 2024-25, none of which were in football. Oregon self-reported seven in the same period, including one in football. Tennessee athletics had six overall in the second half of 2025.

Unless there’s a wider pattern involved, many of these minor violations often result in a proverbial slap on the wrist such as “rules education” or a letter of admonishment.

But even the most minor rules were adopted by NCAA member schools for a reason, in this case to regulate recruiting practices and coaching limits for the sake of competitive equity. A failure to report them could result in more serious penalties later. Colorado self-reported six similar violations for football in 2024 and 11 before that dating to Sanders’ hiring in December 2022.

The Colorado trading cards case

According to the report, 42 Colorado football recruits “received an improper recruiting inducement when the institution provided the prospective student-athletes with tangible playing cards in conjunction with recruiting materials that were otherwise permissible.”

This was discovered when a video about it circulated on social media, triggering an email to the Colorado NCAA rules compliance office from the Big 12 Conference. Colorado’s compliance office was unaware of it and learned Colorado football’s director of player development “erroneously believed that the trading cards did not constitute a tangible benefit.”

As a result, football coaches and staff received rules education while Colorado was required to seek restitution of the benefit if any of the recruits enrolled at the school. The cards were valued at $31.59 per recruit.

Colorado also was required to issue a letter of admonishment to the person responsible for the violation and prevent staff from sending recruiting materials to the recruits involved for two weeks. Sanders wasn’t named in the report.

Devin Hester’s ‘instruction’ apparently at issue for Colorado football

In the other minor NCAA infractions case at Colorado, the incident occurred at a football practice around Sept. 27, 2024, although a video of it wasn’t discovered by the school until Aug. 9, 2025, according to the report.

“An individual that is not an institutional staff member provided tactical instruction to one football student-athlete during an otherwise permissible on-field practice activity,” the report stated.

That’s another way of saying somebody who is not on Colorado’s staff coached a Colorado player at a Colorado practice. The report doesn’t name the people involved, but the date matched when Pro Football Hall of Famer Devin Hester attended a Colorado practice in Orlando and was seen on a YouTube video briefly giving some tips to Colorado receiver LaJohntay Wester.

As a result, Colorado said it would provide rules education for the football staff and would reduce the team’s countable activities by one hour for the week of Aug. 10, 2025.

What is the point of these NCAA rules?

These rules are not handed down by decree from the NCAA president or his staff. They are legislated by NCAA members to promote fairness and other reasons.

“Many in the general public and national media forget or fail to acknowledge that most NCAA rules come from member universities themselves, including through rule proposals by coaches and athletics administrators,” said Josh Lens, an associate professor at Iowa who previously worked in NCAA rules compliance at Baylor. “Often these proposals are intended to maintain competitive equity.”

For example, the NCAA has long limited the number of university staff members who can coach student-athletes at their university. Before 2024, the football limit was 10 on-field assistant coaches, in addition to the head coach.

“This was in part an attempt to limit universities with more resources from hiring numerous coaches and gaining an advantage,” Lens said.

Other NCAA rules being challenged

The NCAA recently loosened the coaching staff restriction in football, allowing any institutional staff member to provide technical instruction to players, just not a person from outside the school during the regular season.

Other rules covering player eligibility are being challenged in court. In 2024, an antitrust lawsuit successfully helped eliminate NCAA restrictions on the number of times a player can transfer to a new school without penalty.

But the NCAA still regulates what schools can send to recruits. Custom-made trading cards aren’t permitted. And neither is a little advice at practice from Devin Hester.

“The impermissible tactical instruction by the individual that is not an institutional staff member was an isolated event and the impermissible tactical instruction lasted less than two minutes,” Colorado’s report stated.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders’ Colorado team self-reported two minor NCAA violations

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos