A Bowling Green bar that is a favorite of locals and WKU students alike is gathering some national attention online.

A Twitter and Instagram hybrid account by the name of “5th Year” is leading the scene in the national bar bracket. Barstool Sports, an entertainment media organization, is sponsoring the competition which pits 60 college town bars across the country against each other in bracket format.

On March 18, 5th Year posted the #BarstoolBestBar bracket to Twitter and Instagram to find “America’s best college bar.” Social media users could then vote for their favorite bars via Twitter polls and tweets for the first round of match ups.

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{{tncms-inline account=”5th Year” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨🚨THE OFFICIAL <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BarstoolBestBar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BarstoolBestBar</a> BRACKET IS OUT🚨🚨Who will be crowned as the country's Top College Bar? <a href="https://t.co/B2cv5U9ie6">pic.twitter.com/B2cv5U9ie6</a></p>— 5th Year (@5thYear) <a href="https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1107735013666246656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1107735013666246656″ type=”twitter”}}

Bowling Green’s very own Hilligans, a 12 seed, beat out the fifth-seeded Sky Bar from Auburn, Alabama, by winning 51 percent of 24,304 votes on a Twitter poll. That’s 12,395 votes to get Hilligans to the next round.

{{tncms-inline account=”5th Year” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">#5 <a href="https://twitter.com/WarDamnStool?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WarDamnStool</a> takes on #12 <a href="https://twitter.com/BarstoolWestern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarstoolWestern</a> Vote in our poll below. You can also tweet the bar’s name using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BarstoolBestBar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BarstoolBestBar</a> for an extra vote<a href="https://twitter.com/AuburnSkyBar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@auburnskybar</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hilligansbg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Hilligansbg</a></p>— 5th Year (@5thYear) <a href="https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1108794298861084672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1108794298861084672″ type=”twitter”}}

For comparison, that’s more than the total amount of voters who voted between Patti Minter and Benjamin T. Lawson for Kentucky state representative. According to official results from ky.gov, 11,689 combined voters decided the outcome between Minter and Lawson, with Minter taking 6,253 of those votes.

Shelby Taylor, a manager at Hilligans, said that the bar is excited for the competition, especially since they made it through the first round.

“We are grateful to have made it through the first round,” Taylor said. “We’re hopeful to make it to the Elite Eight.”

To celebrate, Hilligans served its patrons free pizza for a couple hours on Sunday and got the crowd excited for the next round of voting. Taylor said if Hilligans keeps winning in the competition then the bar will keep celebrating, but they won’t announce celebration plans until they win the coming rounds.

The next round of voting takes place this Tuesday with Hilligans going up against Innisfree, a pub nearby the University of Alabama. Innisfree won 51 percent of 12,416 votes against Fats, which is located near the University of Florida. That’s 6,332 votes, just over half of what Hilligans got in the first round.

{{tncms-inline account=”5th Year” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">#4 <a href="https://twitter.com/BarstoolAlabama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarstoolAlabama</a> takes on #12 <a href="https://twitter.com/BarstoolWestern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarstoolWestern</a> Vote in our poll below. You can also tweet the bar’s name using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BarstoolBestBar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BarstoolBestBar</a> for an extra vote <a href="https://twitter.com/innisfreettown?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@innisfreettown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hilligansbg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hilligansbg</a></p>— 5th Year (@5thYear) <a href="https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1110606130332483588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/5thYear/status/1110606130332483588″ type=”twitter”}}

Print managing editor Spencer Harsh can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected].