Texas Collegiate League logo |
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| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Country(ies) | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) | Victoria Generals |
| Most titles | Coppell Copperheads (3) |
| Official website | www.texascollegiateleague.com |
The Texas Collegiate League (TCL) is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of the top college players from North America and beyond. The TCL is based in Coppell, Texas, and shares its headquarters with the Coppell Copperheads, the DFW Metroplex-area team. The current league President is Uri Geva from the Brazos Valley Bombers.
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.
Teams are run similar to a professional minor league team, providing players an opportunity to play under the same conditions as the minor leagues. Games are played most days during the week (as opposed to college teams which often play on weekends only), and wooden bats and major league specification baseballs are used (as opposed to college spec balls and the metal bats used at the college level). Season play occurs in early June through late July, culminating in a best-of-three series featuring the top two teams from each division. The winners of the division series advance to a best-of-three championship series in early August.
Contents |
| Texas Collegiate League | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Founded | City | Stadium | Capacity | |
| Acadiana Cane Cutters | 2011 | Lafayette, Louisiana | Fabacher Field | 1,400 | |
| Alexandria Aces | 1994 (*) | Alexandria, Louisiana | Bringhurst Field | 3,500 | |
| Brazos Valley Bombers | 2007 | Bryan-College Station, Texas | Brazos Valley Bank Ballpark | 2,121 | |
| Coppell Copperheads | 2004 | Coppell, Texas | Coppell ISD Baseball Complex | ||
| East Texas Pump Jacks | 2008 | Kilgore, Texas | Driller Park | 3,000 | |
| Victoria Generals | 2009 | Victoria, Texas | River Side Stadium | ||
(*) The Aces were formed in 1994 as a member of the Continental Baseball League, and moved to the TCL in 2009.
(**) Tomcats played only the 2010 season
In the face of steep financial difficulty, the owners of the teams attempted to change the league's management in 2007. In September, 2007, the Texas Collegiate League filed a lawsuit against several team owners, claiming that the owners and others "conspired to take over the league". The league re-organized under new management. With the exception of the McKinney Marshalls, Coppell Copperheads and Brazos Valley Bombers, all other league teams were dissolved. The league voted Uri Geva as the league president. With the addition of one new teams, the East Texas Pump Jacks, the league played the 2008 season with 4 teams.
2008 Season included new attendance records for the league and the Brazos Valley Bombers made the top 50 attendance list of all summer collegiate teams.
With the McKinney Marshals disbanding after 2010, the Copperheads are the only remaining franchise to have played in every TCL season.
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