2022-2023 Program Details

Effective June 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022
** Click Here to View 2022-2023 Program Details Effective as of January 1, 2023 **
UPDATED – 09/27/2022

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, 2022   *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points down to 150th place.
  • AFTCO Collegiate Bass Open – Lake Dardanelle – October, 2022.  *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points down to 150th place.
  • Pickwick Slam – Pickwick Lake – April, 2023  *Two highest finishing teams from each school earn points down to 150th place.
  • BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops – Lake Hartwell – May, 2023  *Three highest finishing teams from each school earn points down to 150th place.

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 up to 150th place.  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.

ACA Championship:

The ACA BoatUS 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.

ACA Major Events will be worth 1,750 points regardless of field size. 1st place will receive 1,750 points and points will decrease by 10 point increments all the way to the last team (150thth 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.   The top two teams in these events from each school will be awarded points.

ACA BoatUS Championship will be worth 2,500 points regardless of field size. 1st place will receive 2,500 points and will points 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 school 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 B.A.S.S./MLF College Series events based on the points formula listed below.

Each B.A.S.S./MLF college series event will be worth 1,250 points regardless of field size. 1st place will receive 1,250 points and points will decrease by 10 point increments all the way to the last team (100thth 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.

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

The ACA also reserves the right to allow schools to fish makeup events outside their MLF conference should the schedule change or cancellations of events by the hosting organization not allow a school to meet the maximum amount of events allowed for that series during the season.

MLF

Each university/college bass fishing club can only earn points at the first three (3) MLF regional events competed in within their MLF assigned conference.

Each university/college bass fishing club can also earn points at the first one (1) MLF regional event or MLF Collegiate Open competed in outside of their MLF assigned conference.

Per the above criteria, a university/college bass fishing club can only earn points from a maximum of four (4) MLF regional events or MLF Collegiate Open combined.

In the event that multiple MLF Regional events are scheduled on the same day and a school plans to send teams to more than one of those MLF Regional events outside of their assigned MLF conference, the university/college bass fishing club must notify the ACA via email at college@carecotv.com by 11:59 PM (CT) on the Monday prior to the event date designating which Regional they want to count for School of the Year points.  If a team fishes in multiple MLF Regional events on the same day and does not notify the ACA regarding which event they want to count for points, the ACA will select at random which event is to be counted for points for that given school upon the posting of the final results for the tournaments.

B.A.S.S.

Each university/college bass fishing club can earn points at all B.A.S.S. regular season collegiate events, excluding the B.A.S.S. Wild Card.   The B.A.S.S. Wild Card event points are explained below.

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 75th 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, 2023, the results must be turned in no later than five (5) days from completion of the event in order to count towards the 2022-2023 standings. 

Bonus Points

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

  • B.A.S.S. College Classic Bracket – 1stplace – 100 points; 2nd place – 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 ten (10) school-run and other sanctioned events competed in, for a maximum potential total of 1,000 points to be earned via competing in school-run or other sanctioned events.  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 2022-2023 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.

All school-run or other sanctioned events that are sanctioned for School of the Year points will be eligible to receive a max of 100 points for 1st place, regardless of the field size.  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 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.

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) 2022-2023 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 BoatUS 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.