Mississippi cornhole players, casual and competitive, can face off against one another for cash prizes in an upcoming tournament series beginning this June if they pass one of two qualifiers.
Smiley Brooks got into cornhole at a festival that helped coordinate for Anheuser-Busch in 2023. Amidst all the food, cars and music, Brooks noticed that people really seem to gravitate toward playing cornhole, a sports game where people take little bags and pitch them in a hole onto a board from 27 feet away. The first player to reach 21 points wins, and those wins create a ranking number that allows players to compete against others.
He began to think of a concept around melding the sport of cornhole with live entertainment festivities like food and music. Brooks grew more invested in the sport through playing, and he eventually became a state director for the American Cornhole League.
“Mississippi doesn’t have a major market or platform to be able to do it on a bigger scale. After searching, they didn’t have a league in the state for cornhole. So, I got with the ACL, and we formed an organization for how we would do it and what would be great for the state,” Brooks told the Mississippi Free Press.
He helped co-found the Mississippi Live Statewide Cornhole League to take backyard cornhole players and to help shape them into regional and semi-pro players who can represent the state at the championship level. To help with this process, the Mississippi Live Statewide Cornhole League—with assistance from Visit Jackson and Visit Mississippi—is hosting a cornhole invitational on Saturday, June 14, 2025 at the Westin Jackson.
“When you go to a big cornhole event, it’s a little boring whether you are a player or not because you’re playing and enjoying yourself or sitting on the sideline watching, waiting your turn,” he explained.
“So what we do is give it a festival feel. So we got music; we have beverages out there,” Brooks continued. “We try to do it in areas where they have access to food and hotels. That was the reason why we wanted to do it in metropolitan Jackson.”
The league is hosting five tournaments worth $10,000 each, totaling $50,000. Social players will be awarded $3,000 for winning, while competitive players are eligible to win $7,000. This way, players get more opportunities to work harder, get better and have other chances to play and to potentially win monetary prizes.
“In this (tournament), we’re doing 21 and above, but futuristically, we’re looking at having some collegiate and high-school level players, where we’ll be offering scholarships,” Brooks said. “This was the first rodeo, so what we did was tap the people that would more than likely have a regular job that they could afford to come and be able to drive to Jackson to the qualifiers.”
Participants have to attend at least one qualifier to participate in the tournament series. Both will take place in Jackson at the Westin, with the first occurring on Saturday, April 26, and the next on Saturday, May 24. Players will be able to participate in competitive and social divisions while semi-pro and professional players are not eligible to participate.
Since the announcement of the invitational, people have already begun registering for the tournament, and the league has had more 50,000 views on its Facebook post about the event, Brooks said.
“The tournament is something that we are doing just to get more backyard players to play harder, get better, and get them really motivated to keep raising the bar for themselves as a player,” he explained. “So a lot of times what it takes to do that is to put a little money on the table.”
The Mississippi Live Statewide Cornhole Invitational takes place Saturday, June 14, 2025 at The Westin Jackson downtown. Register for the invitational here. To learn more about the cornhole league and future tournaments, follow the league’s Facebook page or YouTube channel.
