NCAA Wrestling on ESPN: A Comprehensive Guide to Schedules, Championships, and How to Watch

The world of NCAA wrestling is set to capture the attention of sports enthusiasts with an action-packed schedule broadcast on ESPN and its affiliated platforms. This article provides a detailed overview of the NCAA wrestling schedule on ESPN, including key events, teams to watch, and how to follow the championships.

Key Broadcast Details

ESPN provides extensive coverage of NCAA wrestling, featuring top programs from various conferences. For the second straight season, a regular season college wrestling meet will air on ESPN. The ACC Friday Night Duals also return this season to ACC Network with five straight weeks of conference matchups.

NCAA Wrestling Championships

The pinnacle of the college wrestling season is the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling National Championships. The best college wrestlers in the world will compete this weekend at the 2025 NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling National Championships. This year's event will be held Thursday through Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

Event Details

Dates: Thursday through Saturday.
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia.
Participants: 330 athletes will compete in the double-elimination tournament.
Coverage: All matches will be aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+.

Championship Format

The NCAA wrestling championships will feature a total of 330 competitors. Wrestlers can secure a tournament spot in various qualifying stages. A wrestler earns an automatic qualification to the national championships if they win their conference tournament in their respective weight class. Each conference tournament is allocated a minimum of 10 spots for each weight class.

The championship brackets have five rounds: The first round of 32, the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship final.

The two lowest seeds in each weight class will wrestle a pigtail match, a prelim or qualifier, which will begin the tournament. The winners advance to the first round of the championship brackets and compete against the top seed. The losing competitor will wrestle in the consolation brackets known as the wrestle-back.

The wrestle-back brackets consist of wrestlers who lost a match in the championship tournament. These participants will compete in the consolation brackets for an opportunity to earn All-American honors and continue to contribute points to their team.

A pigtail match will also begin the consolation rounds. The winner of the wrestle-back bracket will be awarded third place. Fifth and seventh place will also be determined in the consolation rounds.

A wrestler is eliminated from the tournament if they lose twice, once in each bracket.

Wrestlers who didn't secure an auto-qualifying spot through their conference compete for one of the 46 at-large bids. The 46 at-large selections were announced on March 11.

Read also: Crafting Your NCAA Profile

Tournament History

The inaugural NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships took place in 1928.

Key Teams to Watch

Several teams are poised to make a strong showing at the championships:

Penn State: Won the 2024 Division I championship.
Minnesota (10-2): Gopher's Gable Steveson became the first heavyweight in Big Ten history to win four titles.
Ohio State (13-3): Under head coach Tom Ryan's leadership, the Buckeyes have had 149 NCAA qualifiers.
Virginia Tech (9-2): The Hokies won the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championship, their last win was in 2018.
NC State (11-2): The Wolfpack took third place at the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championships and Matty Singleton (174 pounds) earned his first individual ACC title.
Cornell (11-1): Cornell took the first-ever Ivy League Tournament wrestling title in 2025 followed by Penn (129.5), Columbia (144.5), Princeton (113), Brown (84.5) and Harvard (62).

Top Wrestlers to Watch

The No.1 seeds in each weight class:

125 pounds: Luke Lilledahl of Penn State (19-2); 2024 U20 World Champion, U20 Pan Am title in 2024
133 pounds: Lucas Byrd of Illinois (18-1); 3x NCAA Championships Qualifier, medical redshirt in 2023-2024
141 pounds: Brock Hardy of Nebraska (23-3); Third-place finish at 2024 NCAA Championships, NWCA Scholar All-American (2021, 2023, 2024)
149 pounds: Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (18-0); 2024 ACC Wrestler of the Year, 2023 ACC Freshman of the Year
157 pounds: Tyler Kasak of Penn State (17-1); 10-1 vs. the field this year and 7-1 at the tournament all-time
165 pounds: Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State (22-0); 2024 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, transferred to Penn State after redshirting at Cal-Baptist in 2022-23
174 pounds: Keegan O'Toole of Missouri (16-0); Finished the season 24-1 (.960), marking his fourth straight year with a winning percentage above 90 percent
184 pounds: Carter Starocci of Penn State (21-0); Four-time All-American (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), Four-time NCAA Champion (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
197 pounds: Jacob Cardenas of Michigan (20-1); The graduate student-athlete is pursuing a Masters in Management at the Ross School of Business at Michigan
285 pounds: Gable Steveson of Minnesota (14-0); The graduate student is a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist

Scoring System

Understanding the scoring system is crucial for following the matches:

Match Length: Wrestlers compete in seven-minute matches divided into three periods. The first period is three minutes, and the other two periods are two minutes each.
Ways to Win: An athlete can win by outscoring an opponent, earning a technical fall, or pinning an opponent.

Individual Match Scoring

Takedown (3 points): When a wrestler takes down their opponent from a neutral position.
Escape (1 point): When a defensive wrestler navigates out of a hold and remains inbounds.
Reversal (2 points): A defensive wrestler gains control of their opponent and reverses a position either on the mat or in a rear-standing position.
Near Fall (2, 3, or 4 points): When a wrestler almost pins an opponent. Point criteria varies.
Riding Time Advantage (1 point): If an offensive wrestler establishes control over an opponent, the timekeeper will record this as riding time.

Team Scoring

Team points are awarded in three ways:

Bonus Points: Awarded for winning a match with a significant margin of victory, such as by fall, technical fall, or major decision.
Advancement Points: Wrestlers are awarded a point for each match won in the championship bracket and a half point for wins in the consolation bracket.
Placement Points: Extra points are awarded to a team based on an individual wrestler's final placement in the tournament.

Match Endings

Decision: A wrestler has a margin of victory fewer than 8 points over his opponent at the end of a match.
Major Decision: A wrestler has a margin of victory between 8 and 14 points over his opponent at the end of a match.
Fall: When any part of both shoulders or a part of both shoulder blades of either wrestler is held in contact with the mat for one second.
Technical Fall: When a wrestler earns a 15-point advantage over his opponent, the match is then terminated and ruled a win via technical fall.

Disqualification, default injury, or forfeiting would also end the match. Overtime and tie-breakers can get complicated.

2025-2026 Season Schedule and Key Matchups

November 2025

Friday, Nov 14: vs. Oklahoma at University Park, PA / Bryce Jordan Center, 7:00 PM EST
Sunday, Nov 23: Black Knight Invitational at West Point, NY, 9:00 AM EST

December 2025

Friday, Dec 5: at Drexel at Philadelphia, PA, 7:30 PM EST
Sunday, Dec 7: vs. Lehigh at University Park, PA / Rec Hall, 1:00 PM EST
Saturday, Dec 13: at Wyoming at Laramie, Wyo., Time TBA
Saturday, Dec 20: vs. North Dakota State at Nashville, Tenn., Time TBA
Saturday, Dec 20: vs. Stanford at Nashville, Tenn., Time TBA

January 2026

Saturday, Jan 10: vs. Rutgers at University Park, PA / Rec Hall, Time TBA
Friday, Jan 16: at Iowa at Iowa City, Iowa, Time TBA
Sunday, Jan 18: at Northwestern at Evanston, Ill., Time TBA
Friday, Jan 23: vs. Indiana at University Park, PA / Rec Hall, Time TBA
Sunday, Jan 25: at Maryland at College Park, Md., Time TBA
Friday, Jan 30: vs. Nebraska at University Park, PA / Bryce Jordan Center, Time TBA

February 2026

Friday, Feb 6: at Michigan at Ann Arbor, Mich., Time TBA
Friday, Feb 13: vs. Ohio State at University Park, PA / Bryce Jordan Center, Time TBA
Friday, Feb 20: vs. Princeton at University Park, PA / Rec Hall, 7:00 PM EST

March 2026

Saturday, Mar 7: 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships - Session 1 at University Park, PA / Bryce Jordan Center, Time TBA
Saturday, Mar 7: 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships - Session 2 at University Park, PA / Bryce Jordan Center, Time TBA
Sunday, Mar 8: 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships - Session 3/4 at University Park, PA, Time TBA

Other Key Matchups

December 6: NC State at No. 12 Cornell
January 6: NC State at No. 3 Oklahoma State
February 19: Pittsburgh at No. 13 Iowa State

Additional ESPN+ Broadcasts

The extensive ESPN+ schedule will feature top programs from the Big 12, Ivy League, MAC, EIWA, and more.

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