Know before you cook
Review eligibility, on-site meat preparation, approved heat sources, turn-in requirements, containers, scoring, and awards.
Est. 2014Competition Barbecue
Competition standards
BCA Rules
The official rulebook defines BCA contests, cooking requirements, judging, scoring, and sanctioning standards.
Clear rules. Fair contests.
BCA is dedicated to bringing traditional barbecue to the public as a sanctioning body for high-quality, low-cost contests. Its trained contest officials apply the same rules and procedures consistently at sanctioned events.
A sanctioned contest must have at least ten teams. Traditional contests permit wood or wood-and-charcoal products as the cooking heat source. Non-traditional contests may also permit legal gas or electric heat sources; all other BCA rules still apply.
Open official BCA rulebookScore consistently
Follow the current judging procedures and evaluate every entry fairly under the official scoring standards.
Run a compliant event
Plan for the required team count, facilities, schedule, officials, judging area, and awards described in the rulebook.