TCU has accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year. The announcement was made at a news conference today.

The Horned Frogs field eight men’s sports, including baseball, and 10 women’s sports.

“Joining the Big East will enhance our student-athlete experience and continue raising TCU’s visibility on a national level,” said TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. “We have many championship winning teams within our athletics program and student-athletes across the board will now enjoy greater recognition. This move also provides an opportunity for TCU to recruit more students in different areas across the country, which will further diversify our student body.”

The Big East currently has 16 members, but only eight of them play football at the Division One level. The addition of TCU will give the conference 13 schools that field a baseball program. Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, West Virginia, Georgetown, Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Villanova are the other baseball playing schools in the conference.

The addition of TCU will give the Big East three baseball programs that have been to the College World Series since 2002. The Horned Frogs advanced this year, Louisville made its first trip in 2007 and Notre Dame advanced to Omaha in 2002.

The Dallas-Ft. Worth TV market is the fifth-largest in the nation. The Big East already has schools in nine of the top 35 media markets in the country, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Tampa, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee.

“We take tremendous pride in having a nationally-prominent athletics program and joining the Big East Conference will allow us to further grow our brand and increase our visibility and exposure,” TCU director of intercollegiate athletics Chris Del Conte said. “We are most appreciative of our time in the Mountain West Conference. The league helped elevate us across the board. We treasure the relationships we formed and the outstanding leadership provided by Commissioner Craig Thompson.

TCU will officially become a member of the Big East on July 1, 2012.

(TCU press release contributed to this report.)

Give a unique gift this Christmas from Dugouthats.com.  The Dugout in Omaha has officially licensed 2010 College World Series memorabilia that would make the perfect gift this holiday season (click on the image to left to enlarge).

From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium. Dugouthats.com also always  hats of your favorite college teams like TCU and more.

TCU has announced its 2011 college baseball schedule. The Horned Frogs are fresh-off the first College World Series appearance in program history, and they will play 15 games against teams that played in the 2010 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

CLICK HERE to see the complete TCU 2011 baseball schedule.

In addition to its game against Baylor (2), TCU also faces fellow Texas teams Dallas Baptist (2), Texas Tech (3), UT-Arlington (2), Houston Baptist (3), Texas State (1), Houston (3), UT-Pan American (2), Stephen F. Austin (1) and Texas A&M (1) for a total of 20 games against teams from the Lone Star State.

TCU opens Mountain West Conference play March 18-20 at UNLV. Other MWC road series are at San Diego State, BYU and New Mexico. The Horned Frogs will host New Mexico as well as Air Force, UNLV, and Utah in conference action.

The Horned Frogs play a non-conference home and home series against fellow 2010 CWS participant Oklahoma. They visit Norman on April 12 and host the Sooners on April 26. TCU also visits Oklahoma State May 6-8.

The Mountain West Conference Tournament is May 24-28 in San Diego, CA.

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New Deal Runs Through 2016…

Jim Schlossnagle

“Jim Schlossnagle is a perfect fit at TCU,” Del Conte said. “He takes tremendous pride in wearing a Horned Frog uniform.

“In addition to his on-field success, Jim has done a remarkable job in helping create a passionate fan base for TCU baseball that saw us average over 3,000 fans per home date last year. He has established TCU as a name synonymous with the elite in collegiate baseball. He has also taken a great responsibility in recruiting and mentoring our student-athletes in the baseball program to be outstanding representatives of TCU.

“Everything about Jim is first class. He simply does things the right way.”

Schlossnagle received National Coach of the Year honors earlier this year for leading the Horned Frogs to the first College World Series appearance in program history. TCU was 54-14 and finished with a #3 ranking in each of the final national polls.  He has been named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in each of TCU’s five seasons in the conference.

“I am continually thankful to Mr. Del Conte and Chancellor (Victor) Boschini for not only giving me the opportunity to be at TCU, but for their continued commitment to our baseball program and its student-athletes,” Schlossnagle said. “It is very rare in my profession to find the perfect combination of a university that is committed to excellence across the board, a city that, for me, is the best place to live in our country and a fan base and support group that has allowed our program to become extremely relevant in the community.

“My family and I love TCU and Fort Worth and look forward to continuing to grow this program.”

Schlossnagle is 305-154 (.664) in seven seasons at the TCU helm.

Collegebaseball360.com recently conducted an exclusive interview with Schlossnagle.  Click Here to listen to the audio podcast or Click Here to read the Q&A.

Head Coach Shares CWS Memories…

The 2010 season was an historic one for TCU baseball.  Head coach Jim Schlossnagle guided his team to the College World Series for the first time in program history, and they did it by beating one of the most tradition rich programs in college baseball, Texas, in the Super Regionals to get there.  In this interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires Schlossnagle discusses his memories of Omaha, a new expectation level that’s been set for this year’s team, what he’s looking to accomplish this fall, and more.

Schlossnagle

CLICK HERE to read the Q&A with Schlossnagle.

Authentic college baseball caps are hard to find, unless you know where to look.  Find the hat of your favorite college baseball team at The Dugout, where you can also still get College World Series t-shirts and more!

Leaves Missouri After Eight Years…

Tony Vitello

“We searched nationwide for the right fit for our program, and Tony clearly emerged as one of the nation’s most aggressive, hard-working and knowledgeable recruiters,” said Schlossnagle. “He comes widely recommended and has been a major part of Missouri’s outstanding baseball program over the last several years.”

“The timing could not be better to join the baseball family at TCU,” said Vitello. “The athletic department as a whole is taking off, but the baseball program recently impacted people nationwide with the exposure they earned in Omaha.”

In his eight seasons at Missouri, the Tigers made the postseason seven times. Vitello was a three-year letterwinner for Missouri from 2000-02 before joining the staff as a volunteer assistant in 2003. He was promoted to a full-time assistant coach in 2004. He has served primarily as the pitching coach, while assisting with the hitters and serving as the first base coach.

“He is an outstanding teacher and coach,” remarked Schlossnagle. “The fact that he is a former infielder who has been coaching pitchers at a very high level proved to me that he is a tremendous teacher regardless of the skill or area of the game. I’m excited for our current players to get the opportunity to improve under his watch and be a part of the energy he will bring to our program.”

Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball have routinely ranked Vitello’s recruiting classes among the top 25 nationally. His 2008 class was ranked No. 11 by Baseball America and three of the last four years, his classes have been ranked in the top 25 by Baseball America.

As the pitching coach at Missouri, Vitello’s staff has consistently been one of the top in the Big 12, including a 3.36 ERA that led the Big 12 and ranked 11th nationally in 2006.

During his tenure, Vitello recruited and developed 19 pitchers who were drafted by major league teams, including current major leaguers Max Scherzer and Doug Mathis and recent first-round picks Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson.

“Living in Fort Worth is going to be tremendous,” raved Vitello. “The way the community has fully embraced TCU baseball is only going to add to the program’s momentum. I am anxious to learn from two coaches as accomplished as Coach Schlossnagle and Coach Randy Mazey, but above all I am eager to work alongside our players to see what kind of progress we can make from one day to the next.”

(TCU Release)

In this podcast Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires talks to Stephen Francis of Examiner.com about TCU and the Ft. Worth Regional.  Other teams in the Regional are Baylor, Arizona and Lamar.  If TCU wins its Regional the Horned Frogs will potentially face Texas for a second straight year in Super Regional play.  Stires and Francis talk about that as well.

Read Stephen’s Ft. Worth Regional Preview-Pt. 1.

Podcast

Click Play to listen to the podcast!

TCU's Lupton Stadium will host an NCAA Regional for a second straight year. (Courtesy TCU)

First Place & More On The Line This Weekend…

Collegebaseball360.com contributor Stephen Francis covers TCU for Examiner.com.  We talked with him earlier this week in our podcast to talk about the Horned Frogs and their big series this weekend in Albuquerque vs. the New Mexico Lobos.

By Stephen Francis

Of the eleven (and a third) games remaining in the regular season for the TCU baseball team, the following three may be the most important.  This weekend, the Horned Frogs travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the series that could clinch them the Mountain West Conference regular season title.  Of course, the task looks much easier in writing than it actually is.

With a 12-5 record in conference play, and at 30-15 overall, the New Mexico Lobos currently sit two games behind the Frogs in the Mountain West standings and are just outside the top 25 in most of college baseball’s major polls.  This team is more than capable of taking a key series.  Just ask Texas; who fell victim to the Lobos in two out of three games to start the season.

Obviously, that’s the most prestigious on on New Mexico’s resume and with the Longhorns’ current 21-game winning streak going on, that’s all they really need.  This team is good enough for an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball tournament, and they’re even good enough to pull an upset on the Horned Frogs.  That means taking the series is all-the-more important for TCU.

CLICK HERE to read more…

Stephen Francis covers TCU baseball (and other TCU sports) for TCU Horned Frogs Examiner.com, and he has been providing Collegebaseball360.com with looks at the Horned Frogs this season.  In his latest report Francis provides a “basic” look at the format of the NCAA tournament-with a bit of a TCU twist.

2010 is the last year Rosenblatt Stadium will be college baseball's ultimate destination.

re familiar with the term “pennant race.”  It’s the time of year when the 30 teams that make up baseball’s highest level of competitive play in the U. S. make their final run at a playoff berth.  It usually starts in September when rosters expand from 25 to 40 and teams typically have between 25-30 games to go before the playoffs begin.  For college baseball teams, that time is now.

The TCU Horned Frogs (and a hundred or so other teams) find themselves right in the middle of the NCAA version of a pennant race.  With roughly 20 games remaining, this is the final opportunity for TCU to make their plea as to why they deserve a shot in the college baseball postseason and why they deserve a shot at having home field advantage.

Who makes it in

Just like the NCAA basketball tournament, 64 teams will participate in baseball’s tournament.  Just like the other b-ball, teams winning their respective conference championships will receive “automatic bids” while the rest are divided up between “at large” teams.  With 32 conferences currently participating in Division I NCAA Baseball, it means half the field will receive automatic qualification while the other half have to hope their regular season record and ranking will carry them in.  However, that’s where the similarities end.

Unlike it’s counterpart, the baseball tournament consists of four rounds of “double-elimination” play.  Since wins and losses reset at the end of each round of the tournament, this means a team could lose four times throughout the competition and still win the championship.

The Frogs have made six consecutive postseason appearances and seven total in school history.  Their first postseason appearance came in 1994 when the Horned Frogs qualified for the Midwest Regional, which took place in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Regionals

The tournament field is broken into sixteen “regions,” which each host a “Regional” round of the tournament.  Those sixteen teams are made up a combination of the eight highest-ranking teams (referred to as “national seeds”) and then eight other teams traditionally consist of teams that can promise a certain amount of fan attendance and revenue.  Each Regional is made up of four teams competing in a double-elimination tournament.  The sixteen winners of the Regionals move onto the Super Regionals.

CLICK HERE to read more…

Freshman Hurler Joins Teammate As Invitee

FORT WORTH, TX – TCU pitcher Matt Purke has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2010 National Team Trials. Purke will join Kyle Winkler, who accepted an early invite in January, at the trials, which take place in Cary, N.C. The trials are set to begin on July 5 and run through July 11 when the final roster will be announced.

Purke has enjoyed success in his freshman campaign. The freshman is 5-0 in nine starts this season. He has posted a 3.47 ERA in 49 1/3 innings pitched. Purke ranks second in the Mountain West with 60 strikeouts and is limiting opponents to a .233 batting average.

The coaching staff features manager Bill Kinneberg (Utah) and pitching coach Dave Serrano (Cal State Fullerton), along with Ed Blankmeyer (St. John’s) and Nino Giarratano (San Francisco). Baseball athletic trainer Danny Wheat will serve as the head trainer for the team in 2010.

Jake Arrieta was the first Horned Frog to be invited to the trials in the summer of 2006. He made the 22-man roster and helped lead the team to its first-ever gold medal on Cuban soil that summer.TCU  Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle served as an assistant coach on that team.

Other Invitees Include

C.J. Cron-Utah

Matt Jensen-Cal Poly

Danny Hultzen-Virginia

Kyle Winkler-TCU

Nick Ramirez-Cal State Fullerton

Tyler Pill-Cal State Fullerton

Mikie Mahtook-LSU

Austin Nola-LSU

Matty Ott-LSU

Sonny Gray-Vanderbilt

Gerrit Cole-UCLA

Ryan Wright-Louisville