Cornhole Mania 2020 Will Air on ESPN

Live sports will be on this weekend. The American Cornhole League announced this week Cornhole Mania 2020 will be televised on ESPN and ESPN2 on Saturday, May 9. The event will take place at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center in Rock Hill South Carolina. The doubles competition will air from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET on ESPN. The singles competition will air on ESPN 2 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"We're excited for the opportunity to televise live sports on our networks for fans to enjoy," said Burke Magnus, ESPN's executive vice president of programming per Variety. "These past two months, we've seen the importance of shared experiences in uniting us all. We look forward to continuing that with the upcoming ACL pro qualifier." This will be the league's first competition since January due to the coronavirus pandemic. The event will be smaller than past national events to help practice social distancing, and all players will be screened for COVID-19 and will wear protective masks.

"The COVID-19 crisis obviously continues to disrupt everyone's normal lives," Stacey Moore, Commissioner and Founder of the American Cornhole League, said in a statement. "We hope that the resumption of competition will help in some small way by entertaining sports fans at home. We are very grateful for everyone involved that has helped to make this possible – from the City of Rock Hill, SC to the South Carolina State Officials to our broadcast partner in ESPN and production team. The ACL and our Pros give special thanks to our Title Sponsor, Johnsonville, and their front line workers that are working hard in a high risk environment to keep us fed."

Hosting cornhole is nothing new for ESPN. Back in December, ESPN and ESPN2 aired the National College Cornhole Championship, which is sponsored by the American Cornhole League and paid out at least $25,000 in scholarship money. Forbes talked to Moore about the success of the league, and he said he wanted to capitalize on how big tailgating has gotten over the years.

"I saw tailgating as one of the largest informal industries out there and figured there was a way to capture and profit from that," Moore said. "I created different types of brands to try and figure out how to capitalize on the tailgating lifestyle."