The Social Media Civil War will not be won on the battlefield (maybe the football field) but rather on people’s Facebook^® and Twitter pages. Two of the major college sports conferences — the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference — are squaring off in an epic battle fought via the computer or cell phone.

Earlier this month, the Southeastern Conference issued a ban on all types of social media for paid ticketed patrons at any of its conference sporting events or stadiums. So that means no Twitter update after a clutch Florida touchdown or uploading a picture to Facebook^® from seats in the student section at the University of Kentucky hoops game.

The Southeastern Conference believes that information/pictures/videos written or taken at its sporting events are property of the Southeastern Conference and its TV network, CBS, with which the Southeastern Conference just signed a TV rights contract. The Southeastern Conference has since revised its ban on social media to allow personal messages and updates of sporting events but not the distribution of photos or videos in real time for commercial use or as a substitute for radio, TV or video coverage of the event.

On the opposite side of the of “Mason Dixon” line of social media is the Big Ten Conference, which has embraced social media. All Big Ten athletic teams have their own Twitter feeds. For instance, if I wanted to follow Michigan State University’s women’s volleyball team, I can interact with the team throughout the season. I can view pictures that have been uploaded via Twitpic of an Iowa State University football practice or even go onto Hulu.com and watch the 1997 Michigan vs. Ohio State football game.

Personally I don’t understand why the Southeastern Conference wants to protect these images and descriptions since it is getting a ton of money from CBS to broadcast these events out to the public. Just as an aside, the Big Ten has its own cable network that carries all of its sporting events so it doesn’t have the huge million dollar TV contracts.

So don’t you think the Southeastern Conference could use its paying public to help promote not only its big-time football games that millions of people watch but also its lower-profile swim meets that get pretty much zero media coverage? I would suggest working with CBS to air segments during football and basketball games that would utilize user-generated social media content of pictures and updates to enhance the traditional broadcast.

I do realize that when millions of dollars are made on advertising and broadcast contracts people want to control everything to maximize a profit, but do you really think a few pictures, videos or status updates are going to replace watching the game on TV or in person? I highly doubt it. In my opinion it can only enhance viewership by letting viewers and Internet users see a “backstage” view of the game from the guy sitting in the nosebleed seats who posted a few pictures of the game from an angle the TV network will not show you.

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