Don’t quit your day job. Better yet, get one.

If you’ve got big dreams getting rich playing cornhole, there are things you need to consider. Although there were a handful of people able to eke out a living throwing bags last season, you’ll see that cornhole is simply not a profession and there’s no such thing as a “professional cornhole player.”

ACL Pro Jordan Power recently dropped a screenshot of the “2023 Money List.” The list is a summary of the earnings your favorite “professional cornhole players” made in 2023. You can see it here .

Let’s define “professional cornhole player.”

According to Google, a professional is “a person engaged in a specific activity, especially a sport… as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.” Obviously, a “cornhole player” is anyone who plays cornhole. That means a “professional cornhole player” is someone who makes enough money playing cornhole to pay his or her bills, raise a family, take vacations, save for retirement, etc. When I look at the “2023 Money List” I don’t see many people who could do that on cornhole wages.

According to Forbes magazine, the average annual salary for an American worker is $59,428.  According to the “2023 Money List,” only one ACL Pro earned more than that.  Only 14 ACL Pros earned more than $30,000.  Only about 30 ACL Pros earned more than someone working a full time minimum wage job.  The average cornhole earnings of the ACL Pros on the list was a little over $7,000.  More than a 140 players, including absolute units like Steve Bernacet, Duncan Clemmer, and Brett Guy, made less than $5,000.

Let that settle in.

If you become a “professional cornhole player,” you might earn more than the average American.  That is, if you can consistently beat folks like Jordan Power, Tony Smith, and Kaleb Batson.  If you are not the number one cornhole player in the world, you will earn less than the average American school teacher who gets 3 months off every year, health insurance, retirement benefits, and a level of security that most grown-ups find is pretty important.  By the way, Mark Richards is still a school teacher.  “He might be the number player in the world, but he still has an actual profession.”  

I don’t think this is the ACL’s fault, though.  Cornhole isn’t really a spectator sport and without a massive audience, there just isn’t a ton of advertising revenue.  Paying 256 players the average American salary would cost the ACL more than $15 million per year.  Information available online indicates the ACL’s annual revenue is less than a third of that.  Like the old blues singer Muddy Waters sang, “You can’t spend what you ain’t got.”  

But that’s where sponsors come in, right?

Wrong.  Product endorsements don’t have anything to do with being a “professional cornhole player.”  Money earned from product promotion is NOT money made playing cornhole.  Sure, Michael Jordan made an absurd amount of money with Nike, but he could have lived quite well on his “professional” basketball player’s salary without it.  If a cornhole player has to endorse sponsored products to keep the lights on (or to pay tournament entry fees), he or she is REALLY just an advertisement professional.

This is the issue I have with the idea of cornhole being a profession and I bet I’m not the only one.

My wife and I play cornhole 4-5 time per week in leagues, tournaments and at home with friends.  Not a week goes by without a half dozen disillusioned adults and ill-informed kids, tell me “I’m gotta keep grinding. I’m going pro.” 

To those people I say, “Get real.”  If you can’t beat every single person in your local blind draw, 9 out of 10 times, how are you ever going to beat the “professional cornhole players” that have to go work on Monday morning like the rest of us.  Even if you can, are you doing it for the money?  If so, stop.  Look.  At.  The.  List.  

If after you’ve see the numbers, recognize the near impossibility of making a living playing cornhole, and still want to head out to Rock Hill for the Pro Qualifier, I’ll be here cheering you on.

Otherwise, lets just play for fun.  

If you need money, pick up a trade.  Be an electrician or a plumber or a linesman.  They’re great trades, will allow you to earn a good living, and will give you the flexibility to play cornhole without being that jerk trying to make a few extra bucks to fund the fantastical notion that he’s “going pro next year.”  If I have to see that guy roll his eyes again because I throw a 7.5 PPR or miss an airmail, I’m gonna puke.

-Bruce Bagger

Bruce Bagger plays cornhole in a flyover state.  He’s a competitive player with a PPR in the 7s that is rarely the best or worst player to get paired up with in a blind draw.  He plays several times per week in local games and regional tournaments.  Sometimes he wins, more often he loses, but regardless he does his best to elevate the players around him.