The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team has released its schedule for the 2025-26 season. The team will host seven home dual meets and will serve as the host for the 2026 Big Ten Championships in March. Four events, including three dual meets and the Big Ten Championships, are scheduled to take place at the Bryce Jordan Center. Times for Big Ten dual meets have not yet been determined, and all dates are subject to change.
The season opens on Friday, November 14, with a home match against Oklahoma at the Bryce Jordan Center. The following weekend, Penn State will compete at Army West Point’s Black Knight Invitational on Sunday, November 23. The team then travels to Philadelphia to face Drexel on Friday, December 5.
Penn State returns home for its annual meet against Lehigh on Sunday, December 7, at Rec Hall. Later in December, they travel to Wyoming and then participate in the Collegiate Duals in Nashville where they will wrestle Stanford and North Dakota State.
The Big Ten portion of the schedule begins with five duals over a span of fifteen days starting January 10 with a home meet against Rutgers. Additional conference matches include visits to Iowa and Northwestern before hosting Indiana and Nebraska later that month.
In February, Penn State faces Michigan away before hosting Ohio State and Princeton at Rec Hall to close out their regular season.
Penn State is set to host the 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships at the Bryce Jordan Center on March 7-8. The NCAA Wrestling Championships are scheduled for March 19-21 in Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.
In recent competition history, Penn State won the 2025 NCAA Championship with a record-setting score of 177 points—60 points ahead of second-place Nebraska—and surpassed its own previous record from last year. “Sanderson is now second in all-time NCAA history with 12 head coaching titles to his credit,” according to official information provided by Penn State Wrestling staff. The program has captured twelve of the last fifteen NCAA titles (excluding the canceled event in 2020), including four consecutive championships since Cael Sanderson became head coach in April of 2009.
During this year’s tournament run, Penn State achieved ten All-Americans—a first for school history—and became only the second team ever to do so nationally (Minnesota accomplished this feat in 2001). All ten placed within the top six finishers. Under Sanderson’s leadership over sixteen seasons, Penn State has produced more than one hundred All-Americans out of a total program count exceeding two hundred sixty.
Penn State also won its ninth Big Ten Championship under Sanderson’s tenure during this past season by scoring another school record—181.5 points—and tying a school best with five individual champions at that event.
Since winning its first title under Sanderson in 2011:
– The team has claimed twelve out of fourteen possible national championships.
– They have produced forty individual NCAA champions since that time.
– Their wrestlers have appeared fifty-nine times as national finalists.
– The program maintains high winning percentages both in finals (.678) and semifinals (.831).
– Only two teams nationwide have matched their achievement of having five individual champions or ten All-Americans within one year during this period.
Fans can follow updates through @pennstateWREST on X/twitter or via Facebook and Instagram pages dedicated to Penn State Wrestling. This year’s presenting sponsor is The Family Clothesline.