What are ACO and ACL

What is the ACO and ACL?


The American Cornhole Organization, also known more frequenty as the ACO, is an organization for the game of cornhole. The ACO is based out of Cincinnati Ohio, and was founded by Frank Geers in 2004. The American Cornhole Organization promotes, runs, organizes, and governs professional and recreational cornhole tournaments and leagues throughout the United STates. They have a nationwide network of Certified Officials, and were the first to formalize and govern the official rules of Cornhole. The ACO has many levels of tournaments to provide a ranking system of players within the organization from Regional, State, Conference, Majors, and Worlds Champion Tournaments. The ACO pioneered several aspects of the game as we know it today, and first introduced two sided bags to the game. They also brought Cornhole to ESPN first back in 2013. The pinnacle American Cornhole Organization tournament of the year is their World Championships which is held once a year featuring the best ACO players in the world. Season 13 just ended crowning Ryan Windsor with the coveted Title of King of Cornhole for this year as he battled it out in a 3 game showdown with Tanner Halbert in the finals!

UPDATE:  Season 14 has just ended and Season 15 is set to being in the fall of 2019! 


Sign up and Learn more about the ACO on their website: https://americancornhole.com/



The American Cornhole League, also known as the ACL, is the newer of the two Major Cornhole Organizations in the nation today and was founded by Stacey Moore who also owns Inside Tailgating. The American Cornhole League also features local, regional, conference, and national events, and ends the season with the premier tournament known as the Championship of Bags. The American Cornhole League is now regularly seen on ESPN3 and ESPN2, and has even received airtime on the flagship ESPN channel this past season. The ACL is signed on with ESPN for a 3 year deal and enters the second year of that broadcast partnership this upcoming 2018 season. This year at the 2018 COBS, James Baldwin was crowned the Champion and defeated Adam Hissner live on ESPN 2 to take home the Title!

To learn more about the ACL and sign up for events in your area, visit: http://www.iplaycornhole.com/



One of the major differences in the ACO vs. ACL for players is the bag rules. Up until this next season, the ACO provided one specific bag for every tournament, and each player had to use the ACO bags provided, For the 2018-2019 season, the ACO is changing things up slightly by supplying bags from 4 differnet manufactures. ACO, Reynolds, Ultra, and Beer Belly bags will now be provided at each ACO tournament for players to use.

UPDATE: For Season 15, the ACO has done away with their bag policy and will be implementing a policy allowing ALL bags to be played.  Every Dirty Bags Cornhole bag is allowed to be played at ACO events, check out our entire selection of cornhole bags here!  


The ACL has a different set of bag rules, which includes the ability for players to bring their own bag of their choice from any of the approved manufactures on the ACL list. This includes about 20 or so different bag providers and players may show up to any ACL tournament with their own bags to use at the tournament.