The

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Championships have been held annually since 1928, except for a hiatus in 1943–45 during World War II and in 2020 due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In 1928 and from 1931–1933, there was only an unofficial team title. Oklahoma A&M (now

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

) won the 1928 and 1931 unofficial titles.

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

won the 1932 unofficial title, and in 1933,

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

and Oklahoma A&M were unofficial co-champions. Since 1934, team scoring officially became a permanent feature of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships is a double-elimination tournament for individuals competing in ten weight classes. Thirty-three wrestlers in each class qualify through eight conference championship tournaments. From 2012 through 2015, a West Regional tournament was held; throughout that period, it involved members of the Western Wrestling Conference (WWC), which had dropped from seven members, the minimum required for a wrestling conference to be an automatic NCAA qualifier, to six. The

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

chose not to participate in the 2015 West Regional despite losing their recognition as an NCAA wrestling conference after the 2014 season. During the 2015 offseason, the Big 12 once again became an officially recognized wrestling conference when it effectively absorbed the WWC. Each of these tournaments are allocated a number of automatic qualifying slots in each weight class, and the unallocated slots are filled with at-large selections picked by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee based on certain criteria. During the championships, individual match winners earn points based on the level and quality of the victory, which are totaled to determine the team championship standings. The

Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Stillwater. ...

have won more NCAA team championships than any other school, with 34 titles (including 3 unofficial), the most recent being won in 2006. Ed Gallagher coached the Cowboys to their first title and won 11 in 13 years.

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

has won the second most team titles with 24 NCAA titles.

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

has won 10 titles,

has won eight titles, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

has won seven championships. Only seven other schools have won a team title, and none have won more than three times. Iowa under head coach

Dan Gable Danny Mack Gable (born October 25, 1948) is an American former folkstyle and freestyle wrestler and coach. Considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Gable is a two-time NCAA Division I national champion, a world gold medalist, ...

had the longest streak of consecutive titles at nine from 1978 through 1986. Schools from the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

won 15 consecutive championships from 2007 through 2022, including Penn State winning four consecutive titles twice (2011–2014 & 2016–2019), while Iowa finished as the Big Ten Champions and the nation's top ranked team in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of that year’s NCAA tournament. Only the 2001 Minnesota Golden Gophers have finished the NCAA Tournament with an All-American at every weight class, and famously won the team championship despite not having a single finalist. Long held at host college campuses, since 2000 the tournament has grown exponentially in popularity and as such is now held in major cities at professional sports arenas before large, loyal crowds. Central to the expansion of "March Matness" (a play on

March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

, the nickname for the NCAA basketball tournaments) has been television network

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, which broadcasts all days of the tournament live and provides additional feeds dedicated to one particular mat online. In addition to determining the national championship, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships also determine the Division I

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

team. The top eight finishers in each weight class earn All-American status. The top four teams earn podium and team trophy finishes.

Championships

Champions by year

Prior to 1963, only a single national championship was held for all members of the NCAA; Division II competition began in 1963, with

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

following in 1974.

Championships by school

Winning streaks

^#: No championship was held from 1943-1945 due to

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Individual champions

''Sources''

1928

1929–1931

1932

1933–1935

1936

1937–1938

1939–1947

1948

1949–1950

1951

1952–1965

1966–1969

1970–1986

1987–1998

1999–2022

Four-time NCAA champions

''Sources'' * Pat Smith, 1990–1992, 1994 *

Cael Sanderson Cael Norman Sanderson ( ; born June 20, 1979) is an American former folkstyle and freestyle wrestler who is the current head coach of Penn State University's wrestling team. As a wrestler, he won an Olympic Gold medal and was undefeated in four ...

, 1999–2002 *

Kyle Dake Kyle Douglas Dake (born February 25, 1991) is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who currently competes at 74 kilograms. Dake is a four-time and the reigning World Champion, winning back-to-back titles twice, at ...

, 2010–2013 *

Logan Stieber Logan Stieber (born January 24, 1991) is an American former freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, who competed internationally at 61 and 65 kilograms. In the Olympic year of 2016, he won the non-Olympic world championship at 61kg, and in 2018, ...

, 2012−2015

References

External links

NCAA History of D1 Wrestling Championships
{{National Collegiate Athletic Association

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1928