Goin' to an SEC game this year? Better check your social media at the door.

St. Petersburg Times writer Michael Kruse reports that the Southeastern Conference has put out a controversial new media policy for reporters that put limits on how much content is more or less disseminated from games, practices and press events.

But you, the fan, are what may be the real threat and you get your new rules too:

"But even more interesting is that the policy also includes rules for fans in the stands. No updating Twitter feeds. No taking photos with phones and posting them on Facebook or Flickr. No taking videos and putting them on YouTube.

A conference spokesman said this policy was meant to try to keep as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and CBS — which are paying the SEC $3 billion for the broadcast rights to the conference's games over the next 15 years — and also on the SEC Digital Network — the conference's own entity that's scheduled to debut on SECSports.com later this month."

He adds that the conference not only sees what you can do now on many phones, but what you could do just years from now. And that is what is prompting the policy.

Interestingly this comes at a time where the worldwide leader in sports, ESPN, has recently tweaked it's social media policies.

I see stadiums banning video cameras, and maybe like some places not allowing "professional " looking cameras or ones with long lenses, but Twitter and Facebook? What about my cell phone? Am I not allowed to talk during the game now?

Who here hasn't had a picture taken at the stadium - it's part of the experience. It says, 'hey look' I might have overpaid for my ticket and parking- had to wait in long lines and the concessions, bathroom, and traffic, but I'm here!

And your God Damn right I'm gonna take a picture, Tweet that I'm here freezing/getting sunburnt/getting rained, having a great time, rooting MY TEAM on and posting it on Facebook.

I want to see the first case of the SEC lobbying Twitter or Facebook to yank someone's personal picture or account ala YouTube. People will go berserk.

I'm all for protecting copyright, but not at the expense of alienating a very large group of people over a small percentage of fans who attend games. If you're there you are much more interested in watching the event, not burning up your battery trying to re-create the event for those on the west coast.

And if you've ever been to a Northwestern Game, heck, they'd probably pay you to Tweet it. I agree with the coach that social media is a way to expand and connect with your fans. The SEC probably sees Pay-per-view as the only option.

The rest of Kruse's article is worth the read.

Poor form SEC. Poor form.

Update: The Orlando Sentinel reports that the SEC has reviewed and revised the policy:

"The SEC finally has come to its senses with its revised-revised ticket policy, and you are safe social media network-aholics. After listening to a storm of complaints and outrage after it initially wanted to ban Tweeting and Facebook posts during live games, the league has backed down.

Ticketed fans are now allowed to post "personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the Event."