Like pickleball, cornhole has exploded in popularity in recent years—but fans are worried that corruption is creeping in as the sport moves further from its roots at tailgate parties and backyard barbecues. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as "perhaps the greatest controversy in the sport's history," allegations of cheating rocked the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships earlier this year. The sport involves throwing fabric bean bags at a board with a hole in one end, and both sides in a high-stakes doubles match accused their opponents of using illegal bags. After a one-hour delay, officials at the August event, which aired on ESPN, determined that both sides were using noncompliant bags, but they decided it probably wasn't intentional and the contest could go on.
The fabric bags used to be filled with corn, which gave the sport its name, but the preferred filling is now resin pellets, per SB Nation. Flatter, thinner bags can give players an edge, and manufacturers say that instead of just breaking them in through playing, they have heard of players boiling the bags, putting them in the washer and dryer, and even running them over. Some players treat the bags with vinegar or fabric softener to reduce stiffness and friction. At the ACL championships, some of the bags officials inspected were found to be below the regulation size and weight of 6 by 6 inches and 16 ounces.
In the "BagGate" game, a $15,000 prize was at stake. With the sport now attracting sponsorship deals, top cornhole players can make around $250,000 year. ACL spokesman Trey Ryder says the league is cracking down on noncompliant bags and is "exploring infrastructure for automated bag testing." "I think it’s funny that anyone believed it would be all friendships and rose petals forever in cornhole,” a commenter on the Addicted to Cornhole Facebook page said, per the Journal. "Now the dirty underbelly is being exposed." (More cornhole stories.)
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