The SEC, one of college sports most powerful conferences, released a new media policy earlier this month that has pretty strict limitations on technology use at its events. While policies like this are common in the sports world, the Southeastern Conference new limitations have many upset and confused.

The places restrictions on reporters to prevent an overuse of audio, video and real time blogging that the league believes would take away from the exclusive broadcast rights of its media partners ESPN and CBS.

Moreover, the new rules also place restrictions on fan usage of technology. Banned by the new policy are Twitter updates, posting pictures taken by phones on Facebook, and uploading videos onto Youtube.

Not surprisingly the new rules are being met with a lot of anger. The St. Petersburg Times reports that the policy is currently being tweaked and updates will be released next week.

And while the SEC will most likely scale back on some of the fan restrictions, the new policy and its language are foreshadowing of the future. With technological capabilities of cellphones improving rapidly, the SEC feels the need to be proactive about what can and can’t be done.

Things that seem minor now such as “tweets” and mobile uploads to Facebook and Youtube will soon be able to evolve into bigger issues. At technologies’ current pace, no one will be surprised if a phone soon could produce a live video feed (heck, I’m sure there’s one that can--I just haven’t heard of it yet).

Imagine for a second if some one with their iPhone could produce a live video and conference with their friend in another state who is sitting at his or her computer.Bow imagine if the friends used that technology to broadcast a Florida vs. Tennessee football game.

The SEC has imagined this scenario; hence the new policy. However, as it stands this proactive approach may not be the best way to protect the interests of the leagues television partners.

The intentional broadness of the new rules has led to many people being confused as to how the league will enforce all this and what constitutes a violation of the rules.

The policy states ticketed fans cannot “produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.”

In response to this Dade City Judge and avid Florida Gators fan Pat Siracusa asked the St. Petersburg Times if he “ call[s] my buddy and tell him what’s going on [in the game], that would be in violation of the policy, too?”

According to the language in place right now the answer may, in fact, be “yes.”

But the SEC really isn’t concerned about individuals phone calls. What the league sees is a technological trend that could lead to people using phones pictures and videos to replace the exclusive broadcast rights of their TV partners.

Daniel’s Take

As a SEC student with ticket access to all Vanderbilt sporting events this policy affects me personally. I’ve taken pictures at football games on my phone and posted on Facebook. Does that make me a rule-breaker?

On the surface this seems silly. Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube usage can’t be regulated among fans, nor do they pose a serious threat to ESPN broadcasts.

However, I do understand why the league is concerned about the trend in technology. If video capabilities in a few years make it possible to individually broadcast a sporting event then all of a sudden multimillion-dollar TV partnerships are in jeopardy.

I think the biggest issue here is the fact that technology is improving at a faster rate then the traditional media outlets can handle (i.e. newspapers and their struggles with the internet).  And as much as I hate silly regulations on what I can do with my phone, I can understand why SEC officials are concerned. Still, this new measure seems too broad, and College News is encouraged by the fact that language revisions are taking place.

Sean’s Take

I can understand what the SEC is trying to do with the Twitter ban--from a business stand point this all sounds great--but honestly, how do they expect to stop people from doing this at these games? Are they going to have police at every single row of the stands and staring at people’s phones?

If so, the SEC could try to hire an immense amount of spies to police the content updated to Twitter or Facebook, but that might prove just as fruitless and expensive as just leaving it all alone. The SEC cannot force Twitter or Facebook to restrict people from putting content on the site; they can only demand it be removed once it has been posted.

Here’s another problem: They also cannot prohibit people from taking their phones into the stadium with them. So it seems this plan may be another case of just making these rules “official doctrine” instead of madly enforcing them. It also seems like they are just trying to put a plan in place for the future, when cellphones will have clear television type video power and even faster speeds. For now though, the execution seems to have a lot of loop holes. 

I should add that the NFL may become the first major sports league to completely ban Twitter and Facebook if more incidents with the social medium occur. The Minnesota Vikings banned their coaches and players from using Twitter after Bernard Berrian tried to play reporter by tweeting on his account that Tavaris Jackson’s injury was going to put him out for the entire season. Later, doctors found that he would only be out for a few days instead. So it seems the Twitter bans may continue for a little while longer…