Texas Collegiate League

The TCL played its inaugural season in the summer of 2004 with eight teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and was co-founded by Wayne Poage, former athletic director at Dallas Baptist University, and a company controlled by Gerald W. Haddock, a minority owner and General Counsel of the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998.

The TCL would nearly fold in 2007, when seven of the original nine teams (all except the McKinney Marshals and the Coppell Copperheads) allegedly decided to boycott the TCL by collectively terminating their interests in the TCL. TCL ceased operations after the season, filed suit against the seven teams to terminate their franchises, and entered into a written license agreement authorizing the owners of the teams who were not part of the boycott (which included the Brazos Valley Bombers and the East Texas Pump Jacks, two new teams which had joined TCL in 2007) to operate a reorganized TCL beginning in 2008.

The 2008 summer season (the first under the reorganized TCL) set new attendance records for the league with the Brazos Valley Bombers making the top 50 attendance list of all summer collegiate teams.

Teams from the Texas Gulf Coast (Victoria Generals), Louisiana (Acadiana Cane Cutters and Alexandria Aces), and Greater Houston (The Woodlands Strykers) later joined the league. The Aces left TCL after 2012 and the Copperheads ceased operations at that time, while the McKinney Marshals continued to play under the name Texas Marshals.

The Woodlands Strykers, who were managed by the Brazos Valley Bombers, went dormant after one season in 2016.

All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. Players are not paid so as to maintain their college eligibility.

TCL teams are run similar to professional minor league teams, providing players an opportunity to play under the same conditions as the minor leagues. Games are played six days during the week (Monday is the league-wide off-day), in three series of two games each, and wooden bats and major league specification baseballs are used. Season play occurs from late May through early August in a 60-game, split-season format. Each team will visit every other team three times during the season. The first-half winner and runner-up make the post-season, as do the second-half winner and runner-up; should a team be post-season eligible in both halves, the team with the best overall record not already eligible is selected as a wild card. The first half winner and runner-up are given home-field advantage in the playoffs.[1]

(*) The Marshals disbanded after the 2010 season and re-formed in 2012. The Pump Jacks moved to Tyler, Texas, from Kilgore, Texas, beginning with the 2015 season.

• Alexandria Aces
• Colleyville-Grapevine Lonestars – Colleyville-Grapevine (later the Euless LoneStars and Colleyville LoneStars)
• Coppell Copperheads – Coppell (http://www.tclcopperheads.com)
• Denton Outlaws – Denton (http://www.thedentonoutlaws.com/)
• Duncanville Deputies – Duncanville
• Granbury Generals – Granbury (replaced by the Denton Outlaws)
• Highland Park Blue Sox – Highland Park (later the Plano Blue Sox)
• Mineral Wells Steam – Mineral Wells
• Weatherford Wranglers – Weatherford
• Wichita Falls Roughnecks – Wichita Falls; formerly of Graham
• The Woodland Strykers -The Woodlands
• Texas Tomcats -Weimar **
• East Texas Pumpjacks -Tyler
• Texas Marshalls - McKinney

(**) Tomcats played only the 2010 season

• 2020 - Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2019 - Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2018 – Victoria Generals
• 2017 – Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2016 – Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2015 – Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2014 – Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2013 – Brazos Valley Bombers
• 2012 – East Texas Pump Jacks
• 2011 – Coppell Copperheads
• 2010 – Victoria Generals
• 2009 – Coppell Copperheads
• 2008 – McKinney Marshals
• 2007 – Coppell Copperheads
• 2006 – McKinney Marshals
• 2005 – Denton Outlaws
• 2004 – Coppell Copperheads

Since the TCL was established, more than 300 TCL players have been drafted by major league teams and no fewer than a dozen have played in the big leagues. Notable TCL alumni include:

• Jake Arrieta – Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies
• Brandon Belt – San Francisco Giants
• Clay Buchholz – Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays
• Matt Carpenter – St. Louis Cardinals
• Tyler Collins – Detroit Tigers
• Todd Cunningham – Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels
• Chris Davis – Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles
• Paul Goldschmidt – Arizona Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals
• Corey Kluber - Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers
• Adam Moore – Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays
• Hunter Pence – Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers

• The Haddock Foundation
• Official web site