Members of the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference (SEC) voted Friday to allow the sale of alcohol in public areas at their events, ending a longstanding ban.

The group’s leadership voted Friday to approve a policy that allows schools to sell alcohol at sporting events, while not requiring schools to do so and limiting the allowed purchases to beer and wine, according to a press release.

{mosads}The conference’s decision will go into effect August 1, according to the statement.

“Our policy governing alcohol sales has been a source of considerable discussion and respectful debate among our member universities in recent years,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement Friday.

“As a Conference, we have been observant of trends in the sale and consumption of alcohol at collegiate sporting events and have drawn upon the experiences and insights of our member schools which have responsibly established limited alcohol sales within controlled spaces and premium seating areas,” he added.

The Friday press release from the SEC states that the policy directs schools to create “designated stationary sales locations, a restriction prohibiting sales by vendors in seating areas, a limit on the number of alcoholic beverages purchased per transaction and designated times that sales must cease specific to each athletics event.”

University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides, current chair of the SEC presidents and chancellors board, said Friday that the decision would improve the quality of game day events for fans around the region.

“We are proud of the great game-day atmospheres the SEC and our member schools have cultivated throughout our history, and no other conference rivals the SEC in terms of our ability to offer an intense yet family-friendly atmosphere for all of our fans,” said Pastides.

“This policy is intended to enhance the game-day experience at SEC athletics events by providing our schools the autonomy to make appropriate decisions for their respective campuses while also establishing expectations for responsible management of the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages,” he added.