AUSTIN, Texas — Relax, Florida fans.
Do not go crimson in the face, Alabama backers.
Chill, Vanderbilt supporters, if you're out there.
You're safe. Your favorite conference has not taken away your right to tweet in SEC stadiums this fall. You can Facebook to your heart's content. Blog away, too.
Just don't snap a picture and try to peddle it. Or post a play from the Florida-Georgia game on YouTube. And whatever you do, don't even think of streaming live an entire series from the Alabama-Auburn game.
Do that, and you will have the SEC's Social Media SWAT team on your butt so fast, you'll wish you were trying to tackle Tim Tebow one on one.
The SEC, understand, has gone digital. And retro.
The fans will be fine. The media might not fare so well, as the conference pushes for additional restrictions on them.
The SEC did revise its earlier rule that implied the customers weren't always right. It has clarified that fans can use any of their social media tools at games. It was never the SEC's intent to restrict their usage, associate commissioner Charles Bloom said.
With more than 27 million-and-counting Twitterers in the U.S., according to Quantcast, who in their right mind would discourage such great exposure?
The league does, however, forbid anyone from selling electronic images or video footage of the action to protect its right-holders' exclusivity, and the SEC also keeps TV stations from airing very much of it. When CBS and ESPN are paying $3 billion over 15 years for broadcast rights, they don't want Joe iPhone streaming the Florida-Georgia game to his fraternity house.
Of course, the SEC negotiated with CBS and ESPN to retain copyright privileges for all its games, past and future, a rather profitable commodity. It will bring new streams of revenue, and it's a savvy move. Who short of newspapers gives away content for free? That said, the SEC is pushing the envelope like never before in creating a Web site that archives digital versions of those games. The site is expected to be operational on Aug. 27.
Neither XOS Technologies — an 11-year-old company that began with three employees in a garage office in Orlando, Fla., and now employs about 180 to handle more than 480 pro and college sports clients — nor the SEC would reveal what they expect this venture to be worth. Our guess? Plenty. With lots of zeroes. SEC football is sort of popular.
"The overall premise is to deliver content to SEC fans whether it's on their iPhone, their computer, slinging from their Slingbox to their TV," said John Christie, general manager of the SEC Digital Network. "It isn't all about money. It's about protection of intellectual property."
Meaning, of course, it's mostly about money.
Christie adds that most of the inventory in each school's "vaults," as the SEC calls them, will be free for online viewing in this heavily ad-supported model. But, he adds, fans can purchase the ability to download games to a device of their choosing for a fee.
The Big 12 isn't planning on following the SEC's lead, but Christie said, "I imagine you will see conferences do this."
You can bet your sweet blog they will. For now, the Big 12 is content to post its games on the league Web site and make them available to the public for free viewing 72 hours after completion.
"We are of the mind-set that interest is at an all-time high," Big 12 assistant commissioner Bob Burda said. "As prices keep increasing to attend events and discretionary income is stretched and squeezed, why fight for the extra dollar? Why not increase our Web site traffic and get it on the back side with corporate dollars? That would afford us the opportunity to command higher advertising fees for the site."
Nor does the Big Ten plan on going the SEC route.
Of course, the Big Ten allows television stations to re-air only two minutes of highlights for seven days after the game and nothing beyond without a licensing agreement. It is also content with its own three-year-old television network, which turned a profit in just its second year and already has an estimated value of $1 billion.
More than 73 million homes are wired for the Big Ten TV network, which is expected to produce at least $100 million for the schools in the next couple of years.
The SEC, however, is thinking bigger.
That best football conference in the land has always been on the cutting edge, whether it's winning, rule-bending, recruiting or sound-biting (thank you, Lane Kiffin).
Now the SEC has leaped to the forefront of digitizing its vast inventory and sold the rights to XOS Technologies. It may be the smartest thing it's ever done, after having Tebow invent football, of course. It also could be the most arrogant.
The SEC's new policy figures to sorely test the conference's relationship with the media, as the league and journalists clash about the overlapping of their products and interests. The league now prohibits media from selling photographic images from games. It also bars TV stations from showing more than three minutes of highlights from games and allows that on newscasts only unless they buy a licensing agreement. Ka-ching.
The growing divide between the SEC and the media who cover it has sparked a lot of hubbub, one SEC insider said.
Rest assured. The plot's going to thicken. So will SEC bank coffers.
But don't look for the SEC to lose here. Conferences as powerful as the SEC don't have to worry about killing the golden goose. That goose is immortal.
Kirk Bohls writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: kbohls(at)statesman.com.