Colorado football did something unusual last week. It opened the gates to practice. Twice.
Media and the public could watch under strict conditions: no phones, cameras, recording devices, notes, or reporting on what was observed.
Predictably, that became the story. Some commentary framed it as a Coach Prime power play — why invite reporters if they can't tell anyone what they saw? I understand the question. I just think it misses the bigger one.
The reporters who were actually there saw it differently
BuffStampede's Leo Rivera attended both practices alongside longtime Colorado beat reporter Brian Howell of BuffBlitz. Afterward, they discussed the criticism.
Rivera called it "a phenomenal opportunity" and "a step in the right direction" — a sign of "trust between the media and Coach Prime and that staff."
Not everything a reporter learns has to become a tweet that afternoon to be worthwhile. Seeing practice in person — watching position groups, coaching styles, how a team actually operates — builds context that shows up in October because you were standing there in August. Some of the best beat reporting comes from context accumulated over months, not moments turned instantly into content.
This didn't start with Coach Prime
The framing of this as a uniquely Sanders-era restriction ignores a longer trend. Practice access has been shrinking across college football for years, including at Colorado before he arrived.
My late husband, Adam Munsterteiger, covered CU football for over 20 seasons. He used to tell me about sitting around after practice with players waiting for their Jimmy John's order, getting to know each other as people. Those opportunities gradually disappeared — Howell made the same point, noting reporters weren't watching practice regularly under Karl Dorrell either. Under Sanders, he could count on one hand the non-spring-game practices reporters had watched, until last week, when two of them happened in one week.
So the reporters who actually cover Colorado didn't experience this as something being taken away. They experienced it as getting something back.
Yet somehow, more access became the controversy
There are fair questions to ask about how broad the restrictions were. But there's a difference between debating the rules and treating this as another chapter of Deion-versus-the-media.
If CU's goal were simply to keep reporters from seeing anything, the easier move was obvious: don't invite them. Instead, they let them in. Across college football, practice access sits on a wide spectrum: open periods, limited filming, closed doors entirely. There's no universal standard, and CU choosing to open up more than it has in years isn't the part that should read as hostile.
Access comes with responsibility — and that's fine
The premise was simple: come watch, form your own impressions, just don't publish anything that helps Georgia Tech prepare for Colorado. As Rivera put it, nobody covering this team wants the Yellow Jackets reading detailed practice reports before the opener. Neither do the coaches. On that narrow point, reporters and the program share an interest: nobody wants to hand the opponent a scouting report.
That doesn't make BuffStampede an extension of the athletic department. We're independent, and our responsibility is to our readers. Sometimes that means uncomfortable questions or criticism the program won't love. Trust doesn't require acquiescence. It just means recognizing that not everything a reporter sees needs to be published immediately to justify the access.
What actually happened in Boulder
Howell asked Rivera whether there'd been much complaining among reporters who attended. Rivera's answer: no. Everyone was "really excited to be there."
Outside the gates, the story became one of control and restriction. Inside them, the reporters who actually cover this program were just excited to watch football again.
For years, those reporters have wanted more access to this team. This was something Adam had been putting real effort into regaining. Last week, they got it. Twice.
Maybe we don't need to reach for the most cynical read of that. Maybe we can listen to the people who were actually there. They saw opportunity, value and trust.
That's a less sensational story than another fight between Coach Prime and the media.
It might also be the more accurate one.
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