2023-2024 Program Details

Effective June 1, 2023 – June 7, 2024

UPDATED – 09/28/2023

**The 2023-24 season for the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia has been extended to include the final Bassmaster College Series event of the season at Saginaw Bay.  This will be the final points eligible event to count towards the 2023-24 race.

Points System Description

Teams competing on behalf of their university/college bass fishing club in a variety of collegiate fishing events will earn points that accumulate in the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia race based upon the ACA Points System.    This points system is subject to change based on schedule changes and additions, and the ACA is the final determination on any club/team being awarded points at any event.

ACA Major/Championship Events include:

  • Bass Pro Shops Big Bass Bash presented by Berkley– Kentucky Lake – September 23-24, 2023  *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points.
  • AFTCO Collegiate Bass Open– Lake Dardanelle – October 14-15, 2023  *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points.
  • ACA Hartwell Slam–Lake Hartwell – April 13-14, 2024  *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points.
  • Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops– Pickwick Lake – May 23-24, 2024  *Three highest finishing teams from each school earn points down to 150th

ACA MAJOR EVENTS:

In those major televised events, as identified by the ACA, up to two (2) teams per university/college bass fishing club may earn points in each of the recognized tournaments. In the event a university/college bass fishing club has more than two (2) teams in a tournament, points will only be awarded based on the university/college bass fishing club’s two (2) highest finishing teams in the final standings based on below points criteria.  Teams must weigh in a fish to earn points.

The ACA Major Events are critical in shaping the final outcome as these nationally televised events are worth “double” points, meaning that two (2) teams per university/college bass fishing club may earn points based on their finish during the event.   Additional teams, after two (2) teams have been awarded points, will keep other teams from earning points based on their finish.

Points for ACA Major Events:  

125+ Boats:  ACA Major Events fielding 125 boats or more, 1st place will earn 1,750 points with the exception of the Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship.  Point increments will decrease by 10 all the way to the last team (150th place) earning points for its place in the standings.  A team must weigh in a fish to earn points and no teams finishing lower than 150th place will earn points.   Only the top two teams from a university/college bass fishing club in these events will be awarded points.

124 Boats or Less:  ACA regular season events fielding 124 boats or less will award 1,250 points to 1st place.  Point increments will decrease by 10 all the way to the last team (100th place) earning points for its place in the standings.  A team must weigh in a fish to earn points and no teams finishing lower than 100th place will earn points.   Only the top two teams in these events from each university/college bass fishing club will be awarded points.

ACA CHAMPIONSHIP:

The ACA Championship will be worth “triple” points, meaning that three (3) teams per university/college bass fishing club may earn points based on their finish during the event.   Additional teams, after three (3) teams have been awarded points, will keep other teams from earning points based on their finish. A team must weigh in a fish to earn points.

Points for ACA Championship:

The ACA Championship will be worth 2,500 points regardless of field size. 1st place will receive 2,500 points and points will decrease by 20 point increments down to 25th place (2,020 points); 26th to 50th place (1,645 points) will decrease by 15 point increments; 51st place to 75th place (1,395 points) will decrease by 10 point increments; and 76th place to 150th place (1,020 points) will decrease by 5 point increments.  Teams must weigh in fish to earn points and the top three (3) teams in these events from each university/college bass fishing club will be awarded points.

MLF and B.A.S.S. COLLEGE SERIES EVENTS:

The two (2) top finishing teams from each university/college bass fishing club will be awarded points in MLF/B.A.S.S. College Series events based on the points formula listed below.

The ACA reserves the right to add or remove MLF/B.A.S.S. college series events from ACA qualifying events calendar as MLF/B.A.S.S. schedules are released or modified.

Points for MLF and B.A.S.S. College Series Events:

125+ Boats:  MLF and B.A.S.S. regular season tournaments, events fielding 125 boats or more will award 1,250 points to 1st place.  Point increments will decrease by 10 down to 125th, with 125th being the last place to earn points.  Schools will be eligible to earn double points for their two highest finishing teams inside of the Top 125.  A team must weigh in a fish to earn points and no teams finishing lower than 125th place will earn points.

124 Boats or Less:  MLF and B.A.S.S. regular season events fielding 124 boats or less will award 750 points to 1st place.  Point increments will decrease by 10 down to 75th, with 75th being the last place to earn points.  Schools will be eligible to earn double points for their two highest finishing teams inside of the Top 75.  A team must weigh in a fish to earn points and no teams finishing lower than 75th place will earn points.

MLF

Each university/college bass fishing club can earn points at their first three (3) MLF major events competed in, excluding the MLF College Championship, meaning teams can only earn points in a maximum of three (3) MLF major events during the 2023-24 race for Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia.

Once a university/college bass fishing club has competed in its first three (3) MLF major events, regardless of whether they earned points or not, any other MLF major events competed in after that time will not count for points towards the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia.

B.A.S.S.

Each university/college bass fishing club can earn points at their first three (3) B.A.S.S. regular season collegiate events competed in, regardless of division, excluding the B.A.S.S. College Championship and Wild Card.   The B.A.S.S. Wild Card event points are explained below.

Once a university/college bass fishing club has competed in its first three (3) B.A.S.S. regular season collegiate events, regardless of whether they earned points or not, any other B.A.S.S. regular season collegiate events competed in after that time will not count for points towards the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia.

Regarding both B.A.S.S. and MLF events; It is each bass fishing club/team’s responsibility to manage their roster and anglers to ensure they compete in events in which a given club/team wants to earn points.  The ACA is not responsible if an angler or team shows up to compete and earns points, per the criteria above, in any given event in which a school does not want that given event to count.

B.A.S.S. Wild Card Event:

Due to tournament field restrictions, this special event will award 200 points to the winner and decrease in 10 point increments for every place after that until 20th place which will be awarded 10 points.  A maximum of 20 university/college bass fishing teams will be awarded points at this event.  This tournament will be counted towards Bass Pro Shops School of the Year points regardless of how many B.A.S.S./MLF tournaments are competed in by a given school.  Only the one (1) top finishing team from each university/college bass fishing club will be awarded points based on the points formula listed above.  In the case that a university/college bass fishing club has multiple teams in the Top 20, then it will only earn points for its highest finishing team.

MLF and B.A.S.S. Championship Events

MLF and B.A.S.S. Championship Events will be worth 2,000 points for first place regardless of field size and the two (2) highest finishing teams will earn points during these events. These events do not count against the total number of events teams can fish in each series.

1st place will receive 2,000 points and points will decrease by 20 point increments down to 25th place (1,520 points); 26th to 50th place (1,145 points) will decrease by 15 point increments; 51st place to 75th place (895 points) will decrease by 10 point increments; and 76th place to 125th place (645 points) will decrease by 5 point increments.  Teams must weigh in a fish in order to earn points.

B.A.S.S. State Qualifying Events

Schools will be able to earn points in the state qualifier for which their school is located in.  Only the one (1) top finishing team from each school will be awarded points based on the points formula listed below.

First place will earn 100 points at each event and the standings will decrease in 5 point increments all the way to the last team earning points for their place (20th place) in the standings.  Teams finishing below 20th place will not earn any points.   State Qualifying events are responsible for sending in results to the ACA at college@carecotv.com.   If results are not provided by appropriate personnel within 30 days, the results will not count in the standings.  For any event held after May 1, 2024, the results must be turned in no later than five (5) days from completion of the event in order to count towards the 2023-2024 standings and it’s not the ACA responsibility to get the results.

Bonus Points

Schools will be able to earn bonus points in the following events:

  • B.A.S.S. College Classic Bracket – 1stplace – 100 points; 2ndplace – 50 points
  • Additional bonus point opportunities may be added as other college events are announced and approved by ACA. Check back for updates.

School-Run and Other Sanctioned Events

Competing in school-run or other ACA-sanctioned events will allow university/college bass fishing clubs to earn additional points based on their top finishing team.

School bass fishing clubs/teams will only be eligible to earn points at the first five (5) school-run and other sanctioned events competed in.  This does not include school hosting bonus points that can be earned as those are separate.

A school or other organization, as approved by ACA, will be allowed to host up to three (3) sanctioned events for the 2023-2024 season. Hosting bonus points will only be awarded to a university/college bass fishing club for school-run events that are managed by the hosting university/college bass fishing team and not by a third-party organization; hosting points will not be awarded for other sanctioned events put on by a third-party organization.

School-run or other sanctioned events must promote which events qualify for ACA School of the Year points.  This promotion must occur a minimum of one (1) month prior to the school-run/other sanctioned event date.

Only the top finishing team from each university/college bass fishing club will earn points based on the breakdown below.

School-run or other sanctioned events that are sanctioned for School of the Year points will be eligible to receive points based off of the field size for that particular event.  School-run or other sanctioned events fielding 35 boats or more will award 200 points to 1st place.  Points will decrease in 10-point increments through 20th place.  School-run or other sanctioned events fielding 34 boats or less will award 100 points to 1st place.  Points will decrease in 5-point increments through 20th place, or in the case where there are not 20 teams competing, until last team in the standings to weigh in fish earns points.  All school-run or other sanctioned events must have at least five (5) different schools competing in the event in order for points to be awarded.

Hosting Bonus:

  • School-Run Events with 50 or more boats earn 100-point bonus
  • School-Run Events with 40 to 49 boats earn 75-point bonus
  • School-Run Events with 30-39 boats earn 50-point bonus
  • School-Run Events with 20-29 boats earn 40-point bonus
  • School-Run Events with 10-19 boats earn 30-point bonus

School-Run Sanctioned Events Criteria

The ACA encourages schools to create and run their own tournament or tournament trail; however, it is up to the ACA to decide whether or not to sanction the event(s) to go towards the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year race.  ACA will not sanction more than three (3) events from one (1) school per School of the Year season.   The ACA in some cases will provide prizes to school-run events as feasible to help schools with fundraising packages.  For school-run sanctioned events requirements, read here.

The ACA reserves the right to deny sanctioning of a School-Run or other tournament if event location/dates conflict with approved events already on the schedule that are in the same geographical area.

To be eligible to be sanctioned for points during the 2023-24 race, an event must be submitted for approval no later than April 21, 2024. No School-Run/Other Sanctioned Events will be approved to count for points after that date.  This means that School-Run/Other Sanctioned events must be contested by May 21, 2024 or sooner to be eligible for points.

Ties

Ties in qualifying events will be resolved according to league rules prior to assigning point values.

Ties in the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year Program will be broken at the conclusion of the season in the following manner:

1st Tie-breaker: The university/college bass fishing club with the highest number of points accumulated in the four (4) 2023-2024 ACA Bass Pro Shops Collegiate Bass Fishing Series events.

2nd Tie-breaker: The university/college bass fishing club that fished the greatest number of ACA Bass Pro Shops Collegiate Bass Fishing Series events.

3rd Tie-breaker: The university/college bass fishing club with the greatest number of points in the ACA Championship.

Questions

If you have questions regarding the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia program, please contact the ACA at: College@CarecoTV.com.

The ACA Director of Operations has any and all say in final point allocations towards the Bass Pro Shops School of Year presented by Abu Garcia Race.