Darian3Hagan
'89 Player of the Year
Some schools play the game. No subpoena power for the NCAA. So unless they've got you dead to rights you tell them nothing. You also, if possible, re-direct a football penalty toward other programs that don't make you money by doing a back room deal. And, if a penalty does come down, you appeal to buy time and get a lesser penalty. Then, you plow extra resources into your football program so that the penalty ends up helping you (recruiting data shows that being under a reduced scholarship penalty helps a football program recruit a better class of player -- scarcity of scholarships makes the offer more valuable to a recruit).
Does anything in the preceding paragraph sound like CU athletics? Nope. And this is the real reason that CU hasn't gotten "favorable treatment" from the NCAA. You make your own breaks in this world.
Checkers and chess as the saying goes.