Yeah something about the spray paint on a winkly bed sheet makes me think it wasn't connected to the athletic department.
I mean, that's really what it boils down to, isn't it? If it looked more professional... like it had really well done graphics, etc... and it was hung on a campus building people would be a bit sketched out. But because it's so amateur looking, you have to assume kids just took it upon themselves. That doesn't mean they did or didn't, that's just the difference in perception between two hypotheticals. They easily could've done a more professional one on their own, as well.
Had no idea the students/dorms couldn't do that. I remember lots of banners like that on game days like when one of the women's dorms hung a "Love Shaq" sign when Shaq Evans was on his official.
I remember a checklist on... Alumni? Dillon? I forget, but I think it was south quad... where they literally had a a bunch of recruits names and would check them off as they committed. It said something like "All I Want for Christmas Is" and then had like a half dozen players' names.
To be clear, the line is blurry (hah) the same way the line about fans (who are by definition boosters) reaching out to kids over Twitter and Instagram is blurry. In general, the NCAA doesn't really give a crap about this kind of stuff. But yeah, simply look up examples of schools getting in trouble of "publicizing" and you'll see that people get dinged over very minor things... but usually only when a school official or prominent booster is directly involved and brazen.