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 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 to operate a reorganized TCL beginning in 2008. The 2008 summer season 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, Louisiana, and Greater Houston 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.
Eligibility requirements
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.
Season format
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, 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.
2020 Season
The league's 2020 season, like virtually every other sporting competition nationwide and globally, was postponed indefinitely in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the TCL developed a plan to begin the season on June 30 with ten teams. One of the five existing teams, the Baton Rouge Bougarou will not take the field in 2020, although they plan to return in 2021. The Acadian Cane Cutters, Brazos Valley Bombers, Texarkana Twins, and Victoria Generals will be joined by six new teams. There will be two teams based at Hodgetown in Amarillo: the Amarillo Sod Dogs and the Amarillo Sod Squad, both sponsored by the Amarillo Sod Poodles The remaining four teams will be sponsored by other minor league teams in Texas and Oklahoma: the Frisco RoughRiders, the Round Rock Hairy Men, the San Antonio Chanclas and the Tulsa Drillers. The 10 teams will play a 30-game season followed by two rounds of play-offs. Fans will be allowed in the ballparks, but social distancing and other precautions will be taken.
Current teams
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.
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:
