Is the Southeastern Conference Against Tweeting Fans?

August 19th, 2009

It’s become almost second nature these days; something interesting happens and you rush to update your Twitter account or Facebook Status. Maybe you even take a snapshot so all your online friends can see. But if the Southeastern Conference has its way football fans will be subject to a social network blackout during games.

Earlier this month, the Southeastern Conference — a college athletic conference that participates in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision — released a set of rules and regulations that its fans must now adhere to. In truth, the fan policy was par for the course except for this new section:

“[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.”

That’s right, the Southeastern Conference is afraid that by broadcasting your amateur game photos and updates across the Internet, you’re infringing upon the video rights that they recently sold to CBS and ESPN to the tune of $3 billion.

Fortunately though, the new policy is currently undergoing a few tweaks after members of the media and social media brought attention to the highly restrictive clause. While it’s understandable that the Southeastern Conference should want to protect their interests and the exclusive rights to media coverage that it sold, putting a muzzle on fans is not the way to go about it. Not only is it impractical — are they going to tackle anyone they see taking out a cellphone? — it hurts the relationship between the conference and fans.

It’s also highly indicative of how out of touch certain quarters are with social media. A fan who disseminates info about a football game is really only reaching his/her immediate social circle, and a throwaway mention of a good play — or a mediocre picture of a player that’s taken with a smartphone camera — hardly counts as competition for established sports outlets.

The Southeastern Conference clearly overreacted to what they saw as a threat posed by social media. Now that they’re rethinking their policy, I hope they grow to understand that Twitter and Facebook are not the enemy.

I’ve had my say, now tell me what you think! Was the Southeastern Conference right or wrong? Overreacting or not reacting strongly enough?

– Genevieve M. Blaber

Entry Filed under: College Craziness,News