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

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

tournament held in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

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

Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 as the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. It has a seating capacity of 41,168, which includes 5,197 club seats and 63 ...

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 Children's is a network of non-profit medical facilities across North America. Children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-center ...

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 The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...

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 of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

and

Rice Owls Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of Conference USA, Rice sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanct ...

of Conference USA 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 Weekly'' is an American sports newsmagazine owned by the Gannett Company. A spin-off publication to Gannett's flagship newspaper ''USA Today'', it focuses on coverage of baseball news from Major League Baseball (MLB), Minor Le ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

'', '' Baseball America'', and ''

Collegiate Baseball ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') is an American publication based in Arizona that considers itself the "voice of amateur baseball" which has been published for over 40 ...

'' 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. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raider ...

, and Baylor Bears. The 2005 Classic included four top ranked teams: the #11 Baylor Bears, #13

Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname " Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Agg ...

, #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 Col ...

. ''

'' 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 athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

, #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 a ...

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 an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

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.Article title

2018

For the 2018 classic, three SEC teams,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

, and Vanderbilt will be matched against three local universities:

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The three SEC teams will play 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 College baseball tournaments in the United States Recurring sporting events established in 2001 Houston Astros Houston Cougars baseball Rice Owls baseball College Classic College sports tournaments in Texas