B-A-N spells trouble in the Southeastern Conference

We’ll pay $9 for a hot dog, but we’re pushed back on this one. The sports fans of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) seem to have saved them from a complete public relations debacle. It came out recently that the SEC was planning to ban the use of social media from its sporting events.  The actual language was: “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 concerning the Event.”

 

For our generation, tweeting about something, adding it to our Facebook status or photo album and the like is just an extension of our attending the event. Twenty years ago, students would have run down to the diner to share stories about their time at the big game. Ten years ago they would have used their gigantic cell phones to call or text friends from the game. And now the class of 2010 is seeing their university trying to prevent them from their natural way of experiencing these events. Telling Millennials we can’t produce, own and disseminate accounts of college sporting events we attend is kind of like telling us we can’t own our thoughts or experiences while there.

 

I know other sporting events have banned phones entirely, like the Masters or the US Open, but I want to believe that has to do more with the nature of the sport and its need for silence than an effort to prevent people from talking about the events on Facebook or Twitter. On the other hand, the Big Ten, which I hate to admit is right about anything, is actually encouraging fans to use social media. Just like most brands in the know, they realize that having people talk about them is actually a good thing.

 

I understand the need to make money, but I can’t imagine that CBS is really going to lose many viewers to my little fuzzy YouTube video or the Associated Press to my twitpics. Even this use of social media seems much more likely to drive potential viewers to the official media outlets than taking them away from it. I’m way MORE likely to tune into a game if I see my brother has posted to his Facebook profile that he's in the end zone and he painted his entire body orange or if I see someone tweet that the Tar Heel football squad is coming back to pull an upset over Virginia Tech (yes, I have been known to abandon games when they get ugly).

 

In response to the uproar this new policy caused, the SEC decided to rework and relax its rules around social media. The new policy language, released today, is a drastic reversal, allowing just about everything except for video, as long as it is for noncommercial use. So, good for you, Southeastern Conference, for listening to the outcry of your fans and revising your rules, but what were you thinking in the first place?

 

Beyond the fact that this is pretty unenforceable, unnecessary, and short-sighted, it’s also a little scary. It's important that fans resisted their policy, not just to retain the right to tweet about a game, but also because we were starring down a slippery slope. While I imagine the SEC could have gotten away with it, in that they could still fill their stadiums on game day, what kind of precedent would that have been? Even if our love for being at a college football game with 75,000 of our closest friends when rivals face off on Saturday nights in October won out over our love for social media and being constantly connected, we still wouldn't be saying this is ok.

 

If the SEC could prevent us from sharing through social networks, what if other large events, city council meetings, entire universities, and governments felt they had a justification to do the same. We all stand to lose transparency and opportunities to learn, share and connect over interests. Would it also have been a violation of our freedom of speech? Should fans insist on being able to take videos during games too? What do you think?