American Cornhole League

The American Cornhole League (ACL) is one of the sanctioning bodies for the sport of professional cornhole in the United States. Headquartered in Rock Hill, SC, the ACL hosts over 25,000 tournaments per year and has an active player base of over 100,000 players.

The ACL features a group of professional cornhole players each season that compete on television broadcasts (network partners include ESPN and CBS). These players are referred to as ACL Pros.

The ACL is majority owned by ACL Commissioner Stacey Moore. In 2021, the ACL introduced its first outside investors of Asland Capital Partners and John Thompson III.

History

The ACL was founded in 2015 by ACL Commissioner Stacey Moore. Part of the standardization of equipment for the league was rooted in its proprietary ACL Bag Policy which standardized the cornhole bag for competitive play and the league's partnership with AllCornhole for officially licensed ACL Pro cornhole boards. The league debuted its first championship event in 2016, named the Championship of Bags, which aired on ESPN3. One year later, the ACL appeared on television for the first time, airing its 2017 Championships of Bags on ESPN2 on the back of its first ESPN deal. At the conclusion of the 2019 season, the ACL created a non-profit governing body for the sport in the United States called USA Cornhole, with the idea of making cornhole an Olympic Sport.

In 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACL aired on ESPN networks for six straight weeks, propelling exponential growth for the league and sport. In 2021, the ACL signed a network contract with CBS Sports and introduced a new ACL Pro Shootout Series. At the end of 2021, ACL launched the Free ad-supported streaming television channel ACL Cornhole TV in partnership with Triple-B Media.

Divisions

The two main divisions of the American Cornhole League are the Pro Division and Open Division. Pro Division tournaments are specifically reserved for ACL Pros. Open Division tournaments are open to all ACL members and to the general public. Both divisions span the length of the ACL season which runs October through August each year.

Rules and Regulations The American Cornhole League has specific rules on how they work tournaments. Some of these rules are what kinds of bags and boards that can be used. Both boards and bags have to be stamped with the ACL logo on it to be considered regulation. With having the stamp put on it shows the bags and boards are the right weight and length. In other cases some of the ACL rules can be flawed for example players keeping their own score, this can lead to cheating. To solve the cheating is to have AST keep the scores instead of the players manually keeping it (Overturf). By solving this issue it prevents games and even tournaments from being replayed (Gillespie). The ACL relies on players to be honest with their score but in some cases, the players are not truthful. McCarthy states "Part of the standardization of equipment for the league was rooted in its proprietary ACL Bag Policy which standardized the cornhole bag for competitive play and the league's partnership with AllCornhole for officially licensed ACL Pro cornhole boards”.Another rule is you need an ACL-stamped bag in order to use that bag in an ACL tournament. The reasoning behind the stamp is to make the game as fair as possible so people do not bring in lighter or heavier bags to cheat. Another rule they have is that the boards have to be 27 feet apart from the front of the boards. The boards in the American Cornhole league have to be stamped just like the bags so no one can bring a slow or slick board to tournaments and have an advantage over their competition.

The American Cornhole league

Cornhole has been a very popular backyard game to play with family and friends. In the last decade, cornhole has become a popular sport and not just a backyard game. Amanda McCarthy said, "American cornhole league was founded by the commissioner, Stacy Moore, and 2015". Their first championship game was aired in 2016 named Championship of Bags on ESPN3 (McCarthy). The ACL had a fast upcoming starting in 2015 and by 2016 was streamed on ESPN alongside the NBA, NFL, and MLB. The ACL was streamed for 6 weeks in a row on ESPN; this created exponential growth for the sport and made it bigger(McCarthy). ESPN streaming these cornhole tournaments was a huge part in growing the sport and the name of cornhole to where it was not seen as a backyard game. Most people still don't know how big cornhole is as a sport, people think it's just a backyard game. Cornhole has taken off in the US with over 19,000 players, threw 14.4 million bags and competed for 180,000 dollars(Brown). The ACL has two divisions one is the open division and anyone can play in this division and the other division is pro and this is specifically for the ACL pro. The pro division is where you see all the big tournaments that are streamed on ESPN. The open division is the local tournament that the ACL puts on for people who are starting or pro and can play in this league as well. Both divisions run at the same length in the ACL starting in October and ending in August of the next year. Cornhole is an all year around sport so people can jump in at any time they want and compete. People can compete in different types of tournaments like singles, doubles, crew cups, and switches. Singles is where you're throwing against one person the entire game. Doubles are when you have a teammate. A crew cup is a blind draw where you get 3 other teammates and there will be 4 people on each side of the board. Switches are the same as the crew cup but you only get 1 partner and not 3 others.

Scoring Method Cornhole in general has a unique way of how they keep score. Cornhole and the ACL use a method of scoring called cancellation scoring. Tim Desser shows " It involves a cancellation method, which will consider all the bags on the board and in the hole after one round, and cumulate the number of points, and where the resulting amount is awarded to the team with the most points". If one team scored eight points and the other one scored six points the team with the eight points will get 2 points for that round. When scoring you take both scores and subtract them and that's the score the person with the higher number gets for that round. In the ACL they use this method until someone or a team gets to 21 and then the game is over and whoever reaches 21 first is declared the winner. When trying to reach 21 teams may go as many rounds as it takes to get there. Another method is a bust, where a team that does not get 21 exactly then they go back down to 12 the ACL does not use this because it would take too long for the games to end and it involves more luck than skill.

Bags and boards The American Cornhole League has many bags and boards to pick from on their website which are all personal preferences. Some ACL bags are faster than others and some can be slower depending on what people pick. A faster bag can help pros push another bag in the hole on the other hand a slower bag is better for a roll bag. A roll bag is where an opponent's bag is in front of the hole and you roll it over theirs into the hole. Cornhole has all types of unique shots that pros can do for example airmails, rolls, cuts, and pushes. Bags have two sides one side is a slow side and the other one is a faster side when doing a push you want to go to the faster side. There are several bags to choose from for example BGs have different styles of bags like wizards, Vikings, and shapeshifters. These bags can be used in any ACL event because it has a stamp on them proving they meet the requirements.