The Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic is an annual six-team

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

tournament held in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and hosted by the Astros Foundation. The 15th annual tournament was held at

Minute Maid Park Daikin Park (originally Enron Field and formerly Astros Field and Minute Maid Park) is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 and is the home ballpark of the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). ...

in March 2015. It was initially called Astros College Classic from 2001 through 2002, the Minute Maid Park College Classic from 2003 through 2007, and the Houston College Classic from 2008 through 2015. In December 2015, the Astros Foundation and

Shriners Hospitals for Children Shriners Hospitals for Children, commonly known as Shriners Children's, is a network of non-profit children's hospitals and other pediatric medical facilities across North America. Children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord inj ...

announced a multi-year naming rights agreement for the tournament, rebranding the event the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic. As part of the agreement with Shriners Hospitals for Children, the Astros Foundation announced that the 2016 Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic would be nationally televised for the first time in history on

MLB Network MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with TNT Sports (United States), TNT Sports, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Communications h ...

Astros Foundation and Shriners Hospitals for Children

The College Classic is seen as the start of the college baseball season in Texas. At the end of the tournament, a Most Outstanding Player and an All-Tournament Team are announced. The event is normally held in early March. The 2020 edition of the event happened before the breakout of the COVID-19.

Competitors

The

Houston Cougars The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education inst ...

of the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

and the

Rice Owls The Rice Owls are the sports teams representing Houston's Rice University in college sports. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of the American Athletic Conference, Rice sponsors ...

of The American, who hold a

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

, compete in the tournament annually. The other four teams invited to the tournament alternate by year. Often, teams competing in the Classic are highly ranked. In 2002, the Classic involved three teams that ended the preceding season ranked in the top 25 of the ''

Baseball Weekly ''USA Today Sports'' is an American sports website owned by the Gannett Company. It is a vertical of Gannett's flagship newspaper USA Today. It is the publisher of ''USA Today Sports Weekly'', an American sports news magazine published weekly. ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

'', ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' (BA) is a sports publication company that covers baseball at every level, including Major League Baseball (MLB), with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in Minor League Baseball (MiLB) college, high school, and inte ...

'', and ''

Collegiate Baseball ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') was an American publication based in Arizona that considered itself the "voice of amateur baseball" and was published for over 40 yea ...

'' year-end polls: the Rice Owls,

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas, United States. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams us ...

, and

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

. The 2005 Classic included four top ranked teams: the #11

, #13

Texas A&M Aggies The Texas A&M Aggies are the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname "wikt:aggie#Etymology 2, Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also simply referr ...

, #19 Rice Owls, and #23

Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National ...

. ''

'' ranked all six teams competing in the 2007 Classic: they ranked the Rice Owls the top team in college baseball, and also ranked the #8

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's teams), 14 of which compete at the National ...

, #14

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...

, #21 Baylor Bears, and #33 Houston Cougars. The

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

and Rice Owls participated in the Classic when they won the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

championship in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The

have appeared in the Houston College Classic seven times: in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.

2018

For the 2018 classic, three SEC teams,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...

, and Vanderbilt will be matched against three local universities:

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (Sam Houston, SHSU or Sam) is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas, United States. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools wes ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. The three SEC teams played each of the three local teams once.

By Year

Most Outstanding Players

Teams by number of appearances

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic 2001 establishments in Texas Annual events in Texas Baseball competitions in Houston Recurring sporting events established in 2001 Houston Astros Houston Cougars baseball Rice Owls baseball College Classic College baseball tournaments in Texas