ESPN is to blame for the SEC Media Policy Uproar, Changes Coming. Many men much smarter than me went through the logistics of exactly what the new SEC media policy stated. You can read it at Tide Sports. The low points are that they want to have complete control over any and all audio, or video of any football game, press conference, or practice etc… It was laughable to think that they could stop people from recording “Rammer Jammer” with their cell phones at a Tide game, or a Gator Chomp in the Swamp.
Now they say that in the next 24-48 hours there will be changes.
Who do I blame? I agree with Dr. Saturday and blame ESPN. They are entrenched in all things SEC media now that they have their meat hooks around them … forever. ESPN wants to be the end all be all when it comes to the sports they cover. They want people to see something on their network and only their network. They have a Youtube channel, that they have disabled the embed feature on. That means that no Myspacer, blogger, or facebooker can share ESPN vids. ESPN even took the embed feature off of most of their in-house videos on ESPN. Why do they do that? They want to make a few more dollars. Now most of their videos on Youtube have less than 100 views. Does that sound like a World Wide Leader? A 16 year old girl talking about her favorite flavor of gum can get 100 views on Youtube.
My thought is that ESPN was in the ear of the SEC when they made this ridiculous media policy. I have nothing to prove that except that it makes a lot of sense. The SEC was media friendly. Then they started to share a den with a lion, and the SEC learned quickly that they do not like being “The Bad Guy”. That is why they will change things. There was nothing wrong with having the largest fan base before ESPN came into the picture. Now that Big Brother ESPN is in the picture everything has to be corporate and very “NFL”ish. I hope the SEC realizes that the contract is signed, and they do not have to continue to follow the ESPN path. Just let ESPN broadcast the games, and try to keep everything the same.
