NCAA Wrestling Championships: Schedule, laws, racking up, statistics

Mar 19, 2025, 07:30 AM ET

The perfect college wrestlers worldwide will definitely contend this weekend break on the2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling National Championships This 12 months’s event will definitely be held Thursday by way of Saturday on the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Three hundred thirty skilled athletes will definitely contend within the double-elimination occasion. Ten particular champs all through weight classes will definitely be topped, nonetheless only one program will definitely win the nationwide title. (Penn State gained the 2024 Division I champion.) The main 8 people in every weight course will definitely moreover be granted All-America honors.

Here is a full overview– consisting of the main skilled athletes to view and racking up laws– for this 12 months’s champions.

When is the rivals and simply find out how to view?

• The champions begin on Thursday and undergo Saturday on the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

• All matches will definitely be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN+. Mats 1-8 provided on ESPN+ and MATCAST on ESPN.

The timetable is as complies with:

• Prelims|Thursday at noontime

• Prelims and wrestle-backs|Thursday at 7 p.m.

• Quarterfinals and wrestle-backs|Friday at 12 p.m.

• Semifinals and wrestle-backs|Friday at 8 p.m.

• Consolation finals|Saturday at 11 a.m.

• Championship finals|Saturday at 7 p.m.

Who are the main rivals?

According to the NWCA Coaches Poll, the prevailing group positions are as complies with:

1. Penn State (15-0); The Nittany Lions search to win their twelfth championship sport below current Big Ten coach of the 12 months, Cael Sanderson.

2. Iowa (14-1); The Hawkeyes have truly contended the very least one wrestler contend within the finals of each NCAA champion provided that 1990.

3. Oklahoma State (13-1); The 2025 Big 12 champs are simply certainly one of 10 teams to ship out 9 wrestlers to Philadelphia consisting of the one particular assembly champ, Wyatt Hendrickson.

4. Northern Iowa (14-1); Under head coach Doug Schwab‘s administration, 13 UNI student-athletes have truly made 20 All-American honors.

5. Nebraska (11-3); Caleb Smith will get maintain of the best pre-seed for Nebraska because theNo 2 at 125.

6. Minnesota (10-2); Gopher’s Gable Steveson ended up being the preliminary heavyweight in Big Ten background to win 4 titles.

7. Ohio State (13-3): Under head coach Tom Ryan’s administration, the Buckeyes have truly had 149 NCAA qualifiers.

8. Virginia Tech (9-2): The Hokies gained the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championship, their final win remained in 2018.

9. NC State (11-2): The Wolfpack took third space on the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championships and Matty Singleton (174 further kilos) made his preliminary particular ACC title.

10. Cornell (11-1): Cornell took the first-ever Ivy League Tournament battling title in 2025 complied with by Penn (129.5 ), Columbia (144.5 ), Princeton (113 ), Brown (84.5) and Harvard (62 ).

The No1 seeds in every weight course:

• 125 further kilos: Luke Lilledahl of Penn State (19-2); 2024 U20 World Champion, U20 Pan Am title in 2024

• 133 further kilos: Lucas Byrd of Illinois (18-1); 3x NCAA Championships Qualifier, medical redshirt in 2023-2024

• 141 further kilos: Brock Hardy of Nebraska (23-3); Third- space floor at 2024 NCAA Championships, NWCA Scholar All-American (2021, 2023, 2024)

• 149 further kilos: Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (18-0); 2024 ACC Wrestler of the Year, 2023 ACC Freshman of the Year

• 157 further kilos: Tyler Kasak of Penn State (17-1); 10-1 vs. the world this 12 months and 7-1 on the occasion all-time

• 165 further kilos: Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State (22-0); 2024 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, moved to Penn State after redshirting at Cal-Baptist in 2022-23

• 174 further kilos: Keegan O’Toole of Missouri (16-0); Finished the interval 24-1 (.960 ), noting his 4th straight 12 months with a successful portion over 90 p.c

• 184 further kilos: Carter Starocci of Penn State (21-0); Four- time All-American (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), Four- time NCAA Champion (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

• 197 further kilos: Jacob Cardenas of Michigan (20-1); The graduate student-athlete goes after a Masters in Management on the Ross School of Business at Michigan

• 285 further kilos: Gable Steveson of Minnesota (14-0); The school pupil is a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold champion

Complete NCAA Wrestling Championships brackets and seedings.

What is the choice process and occasion laws?

• The NCAA battling champions will definitely embrace an general of 330 rivals. Wrestlers can shield an occasion space in quite a few certifying phases.

• A wrestler features an automatic credentials to the championship video games in the event that they win their assembly occasion of their corresponding weight course. Each assembly occasion is alloted a minimal of 10 locations for every weight course.

What are the rules?

• There will definitely be 33 wrestlers (seeded 1 by way of 33) contending within the complying with 10 weight programs: 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197 and 285 further kilos.

• The champion braces have 5 rounds: The preliminary of 32, the spherical of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the champion final.

• The 2 most cost-effective seeds in every weight course will definitely battle a pigtail swimsuit, a prelim or qualifier, which will definitely begin the occasion. The victors development to the preliminary of the champion braces and contend versus the entrance runner. The shedding rival will definitely battle within the alleviation braces known as the wrestle-back.

• The wrestle-back braces include wrestlers that shed a swimsuit within the champion occasion. These people will definitely contend within the alleviation braces for a chance to achieve All-American honors and stay so as to add point out their group.

• A pigtail swimsuit will definitely moreover begin the alleviation rounds. The victor of the wrestle-back brace will definitely be granted third space. Fifth and seventh space will definitely moreover be recognized within the alleviation rounds.

• A wrestler is gotten rid of from the occasion in the event that they shed two instances, as quickly as in every brace.

How do at-large proposals assist this occasion?

The 46 at-large selections have been revealed on March 11.

How are the fits racked up?

Wrestlers contend in seven-minute fits that are separated proper into 3 durations. The preliminary length is 3 minutes, and the varied different 2 durations are 2 minutes every. An skilled athlete can win a swimsuit in 3 varied means: outscoring a challenger with a variant of assorted steps, gaining a technological autumn or pinning a challenger.

Individual swimsuit racking up malfunction:

• Takedown (3 elements): When a wrestler removes their challenger from a impartial placement.

• Escape (1 issue): When a protecting wrestler browses out of a maintain and stays inbounds.

• Reversal (2 elements): A protecting wrestler features management of their challenger and turns round a setting both on the ground overlaying or in a rear-standing placement.

• Near Fall (2, 3 or 4 elements): When a wrestler nearly pins challenger. Point criteria varies.

• Riding Time Advantage (1 issue): If an offending wrestler develops management over a challenger after that the timekeeper will definitely begin to videotape this as using time.

So, simply how does group racking up job?

Match victors will definitely receive elements for his or her triumphes that may definitely moreover help their normal group champion standings. There are 3 means a gaggle can receive elements within the occasion:

• Bonus elements: granted for successful a swimsuit with a substantial margin of success, corresponding to by autumn, technological autumn, or important alternative, together with within the group’s normal ranking.

• Advancement issue: wrestlers are granted an element for every swimsuit gained within the champion brace, and a fifty p.c issue for fulfillment within the alleviation brace.

• Placement elements: extra elements are granted to a gaggle primarily based upon a particular wrestler’s final positioning within the occasion.

How does a swimsuit finish?

• Decision: A wrestler has a margin of success lower than 8 elements over his challenger on the finish of a swimsuit.

• Major Decision: A wrestler has a margin of success in between 8 and 14 elements over his challenger on the finish of a swimsuit.

• Fall: When any sort of part of each shoulders or a part of each shoulder blades of both wrestler is stored in name with the ground overlaying for one secondly.

• Technical Fall: When a wrestler features a 15-point profit over his challenger, the swimsuit is after that ended and dominated a win utilizing technological autumn.

Disqualification, default harm or waiving would definitely moreoverend the match While, overtime and tie-breakers can receive made advanced.

What’s the occasion’s backstory?

The inaugural NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships took place in 1928. The occasion has truly been held yearly apart from 1943-1945 and 2020.

Schools with one of the vital particular titles in NCAA background:

1. Oklahoma State University – 143 particular titles

2. University of Iowa – 84 particular titles

3. Iowa State University – 71 particular titles

4. University of Oklahoma – 67 particular titles

5. Penn State University – 59 particular titles

Schools with one of the vital group titles in NCAA background:

1. Oklahoma State University – 34 titles (newest in 2006)

2. University of Iowa – 24 titles (newest in 2021)

3. Penn State University – 12 titles (newest in 2024)

4. Iowa State University – 8 titles (newest in 1987)

5. University of Oklahoma – 7 titles (newest in 1974)