Jackson Free Press

A lot happened in the sports world in the last week.

The NBA and NHL finals are now set, and the NCAA Baseball Tournament started May 29 and the Women's College World Series started June 1, just to name a few. Last week also marked less than 100 days until the start of college football.

So, it's OK if you missed some of the big news to come out of the SEC.

The conference made several changes at its annual spring meeting. One was increasing the fine for fans storming the field or court. Now, schools will be fined $50,000 for a first offense, up from $5,000. A second offense would net the school a $100,000 fine over the old $25,000, and after the third offense, the school will now get a $250,000, up from $50,000.

The move should make schools take keeping fans off the field-of-play, for the safety of themselves and the players, more seriously. Also, fines had to be adjusted with schools sharing a NCAA record $455.8 million in revenue, or $31.2 million per school, in the 14-member conference. The old fines didn't scare anyone when schools were getting that much shared cash.

The conference also approved adding independent medical observers in the press box for all football games. If officials or a team's medical staff fails to notice a player who might need medical help after a play, the medical observer can stop the game and get the person help.

Finally, in the biggest and most unprecedented move in college sports by a major conference, the SEC has adopted a proposal that bans athletes from transferring into the conference or to member schools if they have histories of domestic violence or sexual assault. Most who run afoul of their team or the law have been able to go to another school after burning all their chances up at their previous institution of higher learning, especially in cases of domestic violence or sexual assault charges. Those players can no longer leave from conferences such as the Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference or Big Ten and then transfer into the SEC. It also means a player can't leave schools such as the University of Georgia and transfer to the University of Alabama, like Jonathan Taylor, who left the Bulldogs and went to the Tide after being kicked off the Georgia team because of a 2014 domestic-violence charge.

As with all SEC policies, there is a waiver process for players if charges are dropped or they are cleared in a court of law. This is a major step in the right direction for college sports, and it also puts pressure on other conferences to do the same thing.

Follow Bryan Flynn at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports and at facebook.com/jfpsports.