SEC backs away from gameday social media ban

The Southeastern Conference on Wednesday (Aug. 18) retreated from a previous media policy that would have effectively banned posting any information about an SEC game on any form of social media platform like Facebook or Twitter.

On Tuesday, the social media world — including Adam Ostrow at Mashable — went on alert letting the rest of the world know that the SEC was prepared to adopt a a policy that would not allow fans at games to “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.”

Ostrow noted: “While it’s understandable that the SEC wants to protect the value of the CBS contract, banning all social media seems not only unenforceable, but also counter-productive. I can’t count the number of times I’ve turned on a sporting event after seeing friends update their status or upload a picture. By barring social media, much of that would be lost (though couch-side commentators would still be tweeting of course).”

The exclusive media coverage contract between CBS and the SEC is valued $3 billion.

Chip Souza, sports editor at The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, said the proposed SEC policy would have little to no impact on traditional print media, but would “greatly limit” the use of video and content for new media platforms.

Souza also agreed with Ostrow that such a complete ban would be difficult to enforce, especially with 75,000-plus fans at home Razorback football games.

“On the the really big games, it already is a problem getting into the stadium. How much longer is that (checking everyone for cell phones and cameras) going take? That’s going to add a lot of time and hassle to that,” Souza said.

Kevin Trainor, associate athletic director for media relations and communications at the University of Arkansas, told The City Wire on Tuesday that the university had provided input to the SEC. Trainor, who would not comment on what the university thought of the proposed policy, referred questions to SEC spokesman Charles Bloom.

However, the uproar was quieted — for now — when the SEC inserted the following language into the new policy: “Personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the Event are acceptable.”

Ostrow, in a post titled “Common Sense Wins,” said this of the SEC change: “It appears that the SEC has come around, at least somewhat, and issued revisions to their guidelines for fans. While video will still be off-limits, it looks like tweets, Facebook status updates, and even pictures will be acceptable, so long as they are for non-commercial use.

Souza opined that a possible goal of the SEC is to direct more traffic to its new digital network. Cutting out other sources of information is one way to do that, he added.

“They want to drive every SEC football fan to their network. They want to make it as difficult as possible (for other media sources), and that’s my opinion, because they want to control as much of it (sports information) as possible,” Souza explained.