TCU Baseball Ranked in Perfect Game Preseason Poll

The TCU Horned Frogs could be in store for a special season.

TCU Baseball celebrates during a home contest against Cincinnati in May at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth, TX. | Brian McLean - On Assignment Photo/TCU Horned Frogs On SI

College sports and rankings are almost synonymous with one another. For as long as anybody’s been alive, college athletics have lived and breathed off the polls spit out by various publications, whether it be the Associated Press, groups of coaches or, in the case of college baseball, Perfect Game.

Every year around this time — with the start of the college baseball season looming on the horizon — programs and their fans wait in anticipation to see if their team is ranked. In the case of the TCU baseball team, any worry about being left off the initial Top 25 was probably folly, as the Horned Frogs came in at No. 11 in Perfect Game’s preseason poll.

Where Does Everyone Else Stack Up With the Frogs?

No other Big 12 schools were ranked alongside TCU, signaling that the national media doesn’t have a ton of respect for the rest of the league outside of Kirk Saarloos’ squad. That’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, it means that TCU should be able to take care of business in what’s theoretically an inferior conference. The downside is that the Horned Frogs might not have as much leeway as teams from the SEC or ACC with their difficult schedules. In other words, TCU probably can’t afford to mess around.

2026 Preseason College Baseball Top 25 📈https://t.co/M8pJBw6Qmx pic.twitter.com/k4EuJx1NQU

— Perfect Game USA (@PerfectGameUSA) January 8, 2026

Elsewhere, the SEC leads the way with eight teams in the initial Top 25, with the No. 1 team and defending national champion LSU being the crown jewel of the bunch. The ACC has seven schools, with No. 2 Georgia Tech being the highest. The Big Ten and Sun Belt both feature two teams, with the Pac-12 (No. 7 Oregon State), CAA (No. 20 Campbell), Big West (No. 21 UC Santa Barbara) and American (No. 25 East Carolina) each having one apiece alongside the Big 12.

A Special Season Could Be in Store

TCU pitcher Tommy LaPour pitched 8.2 innings against Baylor on Apr. 25 at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth, TX. | Brian McLean - On Assignment Photo/TCU Horned Frogs On SI

The Frogs, who are coming off a season that saw them quickly dispatched from the Corvallis Regional, are hoping for better fortunes in 2026. While being ranked high doesn’t necessarily mean that success is imminent, it does show that the talent on the roster is good enough to make a run in the postseason. Just one glance at the preseason accolades that Perfect Game doled out to TCU players such as Sawyer Strosnider, Tommy LaPour and Noah Franco illustrates how potent the national media believes the Horned Frogs can be.

It’s that trio of players, as well as several others such as Chase Brunson and Nolan Traeger, that will be the guiding lights for TCU. If Perfect Game is right and the Frogs pan out to be one of the best teams in the country, then 2026 could be a special season of baseball in Fort Worth.

What’s On Deck for TCU Baseball?

TCU will start its season Feb. 13 at Globe Life Field when it faces No. 19 Vanderbilt in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown. It will then face No. 4 Arkansas on Feb. 14 before finishing the Showdown with a game against Oklahoma on Feb. 15. After one more contest at Globe Life Field against UT Arlington on Feb. 17, the Horned Frogs will travel to Los Angeles to play a three-game set at No. 5 UCLA.