KCBS SANCTIONING

The Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) is an open organization, run by its members, which adopts rules and regulations, trains organizers, trains and certifies judges, sanctions barbecue contests, and appoints representatives to oversee KCBS-sanctioned contests.  The California Barbecue Association presents barbecue contests that are sanctioned by KCBS and are conducted under KCBS Rules.

Major sanctioning bodies

There are three major sanctioning barbecue organizations in the United States, each of which has adopted its own rules for conducting contests and judging barbecue entries.  The three are:  

• Kansas City Barbeque Society ("KCBS")

• Memphis-In-May ("MiM")

• International Barbecue Cookers Association ("IBCA") 

Each of the three organizations has different contest rules and uses a different method of judging.  KCBS uses a blind judging system and attempts to used qualified and certified judges.  MiM uses a combined system in which blind judging is used for the preliminary round and finalists are determined by on-site (non-blind) judging, all of whom are trained and certified.  IBCA uses a blind system with (intentionally) untrained (off-the-street) judges.

Each of these three systems has its unique advantages and disadvantages.  What follows describes the KCBS system.  

KCBS Rules for teams and judges

KCBS employs a set of rules that govern how teams compete and how judges score.  KCBS uses a double-blind judging system and attempts to use trained, certified judges.  The current KCBS rules for teams and the rules for judges are included here.  KCBS Contest Rules