SEC Creates Shortsighted New Policy, Uninvents Al Gore's Internet

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

According to the Tuscaloosa News, the SEC has developed and distributed to all member schools a new media policy for sporting events "sponsored or hosted by the Southeastern Conference or by any one or more of its member institutions."

Now, to be fair, creating a new policy in and of itself isn't a problem.  In fact, with the surge in popularity of Twitter, it could be argued that more schools and media companies need to update their rules to reflect the 21st-century world in which we live. 

(Readers might remember that ESPN attempted to do so through an internal memo last week, which created a great deal of buzz and confusion in the blogosphere over what exactly was and wasn't allowed for the company's staff and on-air talent.)

As technology and methods of communication change (namely the instant information stream for which Twitter is famous), it's important for schools, conferences, and media organizations to decide how they will deal with the opening of Pandora's box.

After all, we're barely two years from the NCAA ejecting a writer from the press box for blogging from a baseball super-regional, which the association considered to be "a live representation of the game."

Since that incident, the NCAA tried to clarify exactly what was and wasn't allowed for media in the press box, to some avail.

I admit to enduring a great deal of curiosity in the past few months, speculating how the NCAA would handle something like Twitter in 2009 (the first full season after the site's exponential user base growth), which is (almost by definition), the very real-time updates which the NCAA was previously trying to prohibit media from providing.

Apologies for the history lesson, but now that we're up to speed, let's examine some of the highlights—er, lowlights—of the SEC's new media policy, again as reported by the Tuscaloosa News.

The policy "places restrictions on TV broadcasts, limiting news stations to clips of no longer than three minutes and allowing highlights for only 72 hours after the conclusion of a game."

No problems there.  Of course, I don't run a television station, so that doesn't mean a lot to me, but from what I know of coverage agreements with the different networks, the league has the right to do that (for example of a REALLY stringent policy, check out the highlights ESPN's allowed to show from the Olympic Games.  Nice still images, aren't they?)

"The new media policy also affects pre- and post-game conferences, practices, or any other event..."

Alright, so practices and press conferences have the same rules as games.  Got it.  Next?

Credentials will be limited to "full-time salaried" employees.

Um, what?  Let me see if I understand this properly.  The SEC, in its best impersonation of an out-of-touch dictatorship, is telling its member schools to only allow media members that are full-time and salaried into any event they host?

(Pause while I look for the apparent punch line.)

I guess they're serious. Well, that makes sense. 

Freelance football writer with a Pulitzer? "Sorry, you're not full-time." 

Blogger with a million page views a day? "Sorry, you're not paying yourself a salary." 

Part-time? "No can do." 

Hourly? "Forget it."

(The SEC had better hope that ESPN's not paying Brent Musberger by the hour, because otherwise he won't be able to get in and cover the game.)

Which makes a perfect segue to...

"Certain exceptions will be granted to the schools themselves as well as those who have paid for specific rights, such as ESPN and CBS, which together have paid the SEC more than $3 billion to broadcast games for the next 15 years."

That sentence doesn't need much commentary.  They say "money talks," right?  So an hourly ESPN blogger has a solid chance at an exception that a blogger from every other media organization in the country (like the visiting team's newspaper or Web site) can only dream of. 

Which word do the people in the conference prefer, I wonder?  Hypocrisy, favoritism, or "monopoly" (the last of which appeared prominently in the Tuscaloosa News article as well)?

The NCAA blog Double-A Zone also has information on the new policy, including this juicy tidbit: "Bearers of the credentials will also be forbidden from producing any form of a real-time description or transmission of the event."

No blogs.  No Twitter updates.  No real-time anything from the press box.

Hey, that makes sense too.  As anyone who's watched a Twitter feed during a big game can tell you, there's no real-time information happening. 

Right.

I remember pulling my phone out after LeBron James hit a game-winning jumper in the Eastern Conference Finals.  Seems like there were one or two or FIFTY people describing the event at the same time.

Hope they don't want an SEC media credential any time soon.

So if you're a fan that can't watch on TV (or are watching on TV and want instant analysis and reaction from the Internet), who do you turn to when the on-site media experts are necessarily muted?  Why not other fans?  After all, if the only people who can tweet from the stadium is Average Joe in Section 126, maybe I should follow him instead of the SEC beat reporters.

Uh-oh.

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