The NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships have been held since 1928. In addition to determining the national champion in each weight class, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships also determines

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

wrestlers for each weight. The top eight finishers in each weight class earn All-American status. The top four teams earn podium and team trophy finishes. Since 1934, team scoring officially became a permanent feature of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. In 1928 and from 1931–1933, there was only an unofficial team title. Oklahoma A&M (now

Oklahoma State Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

) won the 1928 and 1931 unofficial titles.

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

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, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

and Oklahoma A&M were unofficial co-champions. The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships is a double-elimination tournament for individuals competing in ten weight classes. Thirty-three wrestlers in each weight class qualify through seven conference championship tournaments. Each of these conference 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 intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National ...

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 in 1928 and won 11 in 13 years from 1928 through 1940.

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

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

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

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 ca ...

has won 13 titles,

has won eight titles, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

has won seven championships. Only seven other schools have won a team title, with none of those schools having won more than three championships. Since 2011, Penn State under head coach

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's wrestling team. As a wrestler, he won an Olympic gold medal and was undefeated in four years of ...

has won 12 NCAA team titles. Only the 2001

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

and 2025

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Penn State Lady Lions basketball, Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot ...

have finished the NCAA Tournament with an All-American at every weight class with Minnesota famously winning 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. Central to the expansion of "March Matness" (a play on

March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

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

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, which broadcasts all days of the tournament live and provides additional feeds dedicated to one particular mat online. The 2025 championship was held March 20-22, 2025 in Philadelphia. Starting in 2025–26, all currently existing NCAA men's wrestling championships will add the word "Men's" to their official titles, following the elevation of women's wrestling from the Emerging Sports for Women program to full championship status.

Results

* 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 Third ...

following in 1974.

Team results

Individual results

''Sources''

1928

1929–1931

1932

1933–1935

1936

1937–1938

1939–1947

1948

1949–1950

1951

1952–1965

1966–1969

1970–1986

1987–1998

1999–2025

Champions

Team titles

Winning streaks

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

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Five-time individual champion

''Sources'' * Carter Starocci (

), 2021−2025^# ^#: NCAA granted extra season of eligibility to student-athletes affected by the shortened 2020-21 season due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Four-time individual champions

''Sources'' * Pat Smith (

), 1990–1992, 1994 *

(

), 1999–2002 *

Kyle Dake Kyle Douglas Dake (born February 25, 1991) is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 74 kilograms. He is a four-time World Champion, winning back-to-back titles twice, at 79 kilos in 2018 and 2019 an ...

(

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

), 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 weight World Championship at 61 kg, and in ...

(

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

), 2012−2015 *

Yianni Diakomihalis John Michael "Yianni" Diakomihalis (born April 11, 1999) is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler who competes at 70 kilograms. A two-time US National champion in freestyle, he formerly competed at 65 kilograms, where he was the 2022 ...

(

), 2018−2019, 2022–2023 * Aaron Brooks (

), 2021−2024

References

External links

"NCAA History of D1 Wrestling Championships"
at

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

{{Authority control

Wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1928