Colorado claimed its online practice video hub was compromised following its 42-6 loss to Oregon last September but later failed to provide evidence to support the claim, according to a report from Front Office Sports on Wednesday.
Deion Sanders led the program's outreach to the Pac-12, who initially claimed Oregon played a role in the alleged hacking, and the conference took the claim seriously. However, when pressed by the conference to provide evidence, the Buffaloes failed to produce evidence and ultimately backed off the claim.
Colorado's film software vendor, Catapult, investigated on its end and found no evidence of unauthorized access.
“We conducted a thorough investigation into reports of unauthorized access to Colorado’s football video footage last season,” the company told FOS. “We can confirm that the security of our systems was not compromised during the investigation.”
Colorado rode into Eugene riding a 3-0 start, rising to No. 19 in the AP poll while becoming the biggest story in sports at the time. However, the 10th-ranked Ducks dismantled the Buffaloes, out-gaining them 522-199 and building a 42-0 lead through three quarters before coasting to a 36-point victory.
The game was remembered for Dan Lanning's "They're fighting for clicks, we're fighting for wins" pregame speech.
Though there is no evidence that Oregon hacked Colorado to secure the victory, Catapult used the opportunity to remind all its clients to practice proper operational security.
“Our systems are secured with robust encryption along with multiple layers of protection. We encourage all customers to adhere to strong security protocols including maintaining unique logins and passwords for each authorized user, enabling two-step authentication, and restricting access to designated devices to prevent unauthorized access."