Bass Pro Shops School of the Year Competition Announces Updates

In less than one week, on June 11th to be exact, a winner will be crowned for the 2020 Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia. The 2019-2020 season will go into the record books as one of the most memorable seasons in the history of collegiate bass fishing. Teams earned points at a historic clip, with McKendree University tallying up more than 12,000 points before the end of year Championship. Going into the next season, the Association of Collegiate Anglers is greatly anticipating another historic School of the Year campaign that will run from July 1, 2020 through the conclusion of the 2021 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship at Lake Murray, SC on May 27, 2021.

The fall of 2020 promises to be a very busy tournament season for the young collegiate anglers. Spring cancellations that occurred in response to restrictions set in place to contain the spread of the Coronavirus have led many tournament organizations to reschedule events when things opened back up. This has resulted in a large number of events to be moved to sometime between August and November this fall.

The ACA will kick off the 2020-2021 season of the Bass Pro Shops Collegiate Bass Fishing Series September 19-20, 2020 at Kentucky Lake for the Bass Pro Shops Big Bass Bash presented by Berkley. Qualifying criteria and points distribution will follow the same format as it did in 2019-2020 for all ACA events. The winning team will earn 1,000 points at all majors, and the winner of the 2021 Championship will walk away with 1,500 points for their respective school. Colleges & universities will also earn double points at all ACA majors for their top two teams inside of the Top 100, and their best two teams inside of the Top 125 at the 2021 Championship.

Regarding FLW College Series tournaments, the first event that will count towards the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year race is the Southern Division regional at Ft. Gibson Lake in Oklahoma on July 10th. For the 2020-2021 season, schools will be eligible to earn points at the first four FLW College regional events they compete in (not including the Championship & Fall Open). If an Open is contested in the spring, it will count towards a team’s limit of four events. For teams that fish in more than four FLW College regionals(including the spring Open), they will not earn points towards the School of the Year race following the fourth event. Then the ACA will also count the FLW College Championship and FLW College Fall Open on Kentucky Lake for all teams that compete and meet the points earning criteria. This means that teams have the opportunity to earn points at a total of six FLW College events in 2020-2021: the Championship, Fall Open, and first four regional events(including spring Open) competed in.

The Bassmaster College Series has also rescheduled a handful of events to this upcoming fall. The first event on the BASS calendar that will count towards the School of the Year race for the 2020-2021 season is the college event scheduled for Lake Hartwell in Anderson, SC August 27-29, 2020. BASS also has a regular season event scheduled for October 1-3, and then the Bassmaster College Series Championship will take place October 29-31. Schools will be able to earn points at all three events, based off the same criteria as the 2019-2020 season.

For a full look at the rules for the 2020-2021 Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia, click here.