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 March 20-22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Three hundred thirty athletes will compete in the double-elimination tournament. Ten individual champions across weight classes will be crowned but only one program will win the national title. (Penn State won the 2024 D1 Men's NCAA Wrestling Championship.) The top eight participants in each weight class will also be awarded All-American honors.
Here is a complete guide -- including the top athletes to watch and scoring rules -- for this year's NCAA D1 Men's Wrestling National Championships.
When is the competition and where to watch?
The championship competition commences on March 20 and runs through March 22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
All matches will be aired all across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+. Mats 1-8 available on ESPN+ and MATCAST on ESPN.
The schedule is as follows:
Prelims | Thursday, March 20 at 12 p.m.
Prelims and wrestle-backs | Thursday, March 20 at 7 p.m.
Quarterfinals and wrestle-backs | Friday, March 21 at 12 p.m.
Semifinals and wrestle-backs | Friday, March 21 at 8 p.m.
Consolation finals | Saturday, March 22 at 11 a.m.
Championship finals | Saturday, March 22 at 7 p.m.
Who are the top competitors?
According to the NWCA Coaches Poll, the current team rankings are as follows:
Penn State (15-0); The Nittany Lions look to win their 12th national championship under current Big Ten coach of the year, Cael Sanderson.
Iowa (14-1); The Hawkeyes have had at least one wrestler compete in the finals of every NCAA championship since 1990.
Oklahoma State (13-1); The 2025 Big 12 champions are one of ten teams to send nine wrestlers to Philadelphia including the lone individual conference champion, Wyatt Hendrickson.
Northern Iowa (14-1); Under head coach Doug Schwab's leadership, 13 UNI student-athletes have earned 20 All-American honors.
Nebraska (11-3); Caleb Smith grabs the highest pre-seed for Nebraska as the No. 2 at 125.
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 lbs) 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).
The No.1 seeds in each weight class:
125 lbs: Luke Lilledahl of Penn State (19-2); 2024 U20 World Champion, U20 Pan Am title in 2024
133 lbs: Lucas Byrd of Illinois (18-1); 3x NCAA Championships Qualifier, medical redshirt in 2023-2024
141 lbs: Brock Hardy of Nebraska (23-3); Third-place finish at 2024 NCAA Championships, NWCA Scholar All-American (2021, 2023, 2024)
149 lbs: Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (18-0); 2024 ACC Wrestler of the Year, 2023 ACC Freshman of the Year
157 lbs: Tyler Kasak of Penn State (17-1); 10-1 vs. the field this year and 7-1 at the tournament all-time
165 lbs: 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 lbs: 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 lbs: Carter Starocci of Penn State (21-0); Four-time All-American (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), Four-time NCAA Champion (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
197 lbs: 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 lbs: Gable Steveson of Minnesota (14-0); The graduate student is a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist
Here are the complete NCAA Wrestling Championship brackets and seedings.
What is the selection process and tournament rules?
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.
What are the rules?
There will be 33 wrestlers (seeded 1 through 33) competing in the following 10 weight classes: 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197 and 285 pounds.
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.
How do at-large bids work for this tournament?
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.
How are the matches scored?
Wrestlers compete in seven-minute matches which are divided into three periods. The first period is three minutes, and the other two periods are two minutes each. An athlete can win a match in three different ways: outscoring an opponent with a variation of different moves, earning a technical fall or pinning an opponent.
Individual match scoring breakdown:
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 opponent. Point criteria varies.
Riding Time Advantage (1 point): If an offensive wrestler establishes control over an opponent then the timekeeper will begin to record this as riding time.
So, how does team scoring work?
Match winners will receive points for their victories that will also assist their overall team championship standings. There are three ways a team can gain points in the tournament:
Bonus points: awarded for winning a match with a significant margin of victory, such as by fall, technical fall, or major decision, adding to the team's overall score.
Advancement point: 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.
How does a match end?
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. While, overtime and tie-breakers can get complicated.
What's the tournament's backstory?
The inaugural NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships took place in 1928. The tournament has been held every year except 1943-1945 and 2020.
Schools with the most individual titles in NCAA history:
Oklahoma State University - 143 individual titles
University of Iowa - 84 individual titles
Iowa State University - 71 individual titles
University of Oklahoma - 67 individual titles
Penn State University - 59 individual titles
Schools with the most team titles in NCAA history:
Oklahoma State University - 34 titles (most recent in 2006)
University of Iowa - 24 titles (most recent in 2021)
Penn State University - 12 titles (most recent in 2024)
Iowa State University - 8 titles (most recent in 1987)
University of Oklahoma - 7 titles (most recent in 1974)
