It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No: It’s an overshot bean bag.

Welcome to “Cornhole Country.” Rising in the ranks of projectile games such as beer pong, lawn darts and horseshoes, cornhole has amassed a following of monstrous proportions here at Ohio State.

OSU fans sporting scarlet and gray can be seen tossing bean bags nightly, but more frequently during weekends and tailgating festivities.

Known by several names including the slopes, bean bags, corn toss and Polish horseshoes, cornhole is described by many as similar to horseshoes.

The game is played with two teams of two throwing cloth bags filled with corn kernels at a sloping box with a hole in it. Points are scored by landing on the box or inside the hole. The first to score 21 points wins.

According to a Web site run by Cornpentry, a manufacturer of cornhole equipment, the game originated in Germany, and found its way into the foothills of Kentucky 80 years ago. The site also says no one is exactly sure where the game comes from.

Mike Busch, a self described “white Tiger Woods of cornhole” and junior in computer science and engineering, said to the best of his knowledge the game is rumored to have come from the west side of Cincinnati.

Busch who has been playing cornhole for three-and-a-half-years and built his own set last spring because he wanted to bring his love of the Buckeyes and cornhole together. The set – which is painted white with red “O’s” on it – is used during barbecues and before and after football games, Busch said.

“I like cornhole because you can drink, talk, and socialize and it’s not like you have to give it your undivided attention,” he said.

The secret to winning, Busch said, is throwing the bags high and with backspin for when it lands.

“I like to talk to the bag as it flies and tell it where to go,” Busch said, also admitting he’s a bit superstitious.

For John Bobosh, Busch’s roommate and a senior in communication, the game is fun for many reasons, but some more specifically than others.

“It’s a drinking game, so anything to do with drinking is usually pretty popular with alcoholics,” he said.

However the game can be dangerous, Bobosh said.

“One-time this girl was taunting me and a bag hit her in the face,” he said.

The popularity of the game has reached such a high level the American Cornhole Association, a non-profit organization, was formed two years ago to help standardize the game throughout the country, said Mike Whitton, the founder of the association.

Whitton, who once traveled to Hawaii for a cornhole tournament, said the idea for the association came when he went to a family reunion in Cincinnati. When he visited his relatives each one had separate rules for the game and he decided there needed to be some form of standardization.

“The object of the game is to have fun.” Whitton said. “We have a lot of horrible people that play but they still have fun.”

Whitton has seen many variations of the game include drinkhole and striphole.

Depending on the game, you either drink a beer or take a shot if you miss the board when playing drinkhole or take off an article of clothing if you are playing striphole, Whitton said.

“I’ve never exploited my cornhole ability by playing people who are more intoxicated than myself,” Busch said.

The largest tournament Whitton said he has seen is 1,000 boards with 500 teams playing.

“I encourage everyone at OSU to participate in the act of cornholing sometime in the fall quarter, especially if you’ve never cornholed before,” Busch said.

For more information about cornhole, visit www.cornholegame.org/.