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You're at a South Carolina football game, sitting in the sun at Williams-Brice Stadium. South Carolina scores, and as the fans go wild, you tweet to your buddies, “Touchdown, Gamecocks!”
Oops, there's a flag on that play. All social networking at games is against SEC rules. Gamecocks can't tweet.
Or can they? The Southeastern Conference told The Observer on Monday that the conference is revising what might be college sports' most restrictive policy on social media. Why? Because of the negative reaction in the media and on social media.
“I know what's being written,” said conference spokesman Charles Bloom. “The thought process is to get it loosened up a bit.” Bloom expects a revision to be finished in a day or two.
The SEC is trying to protect its $3billion, 15-year contract with CBS and ESPN, which have video rights to its sporting events. A restriction on fans posting videos is “tougher to move,” Bloom said. “The main concern is videos.”
So, can fans post photos to Twitter and Facebook from the games? That remains to be seen, Bloom said. He indicated that fans would probably be able to tweet from the stands. But he confirmed that, under the current policy, that is forbidden.
According to the policy, ticketed fans can't “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.”
In contrast, the Big 10 also recently released a social media policy, but invites fans to take part.
Jeff Elder covers life online. Follow him at twitter.com/JeffElder.
