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 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) 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 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 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, Iowa had the longest streak of consecutive titles at nine from 1978 through 1986. Penn State has won 13 titles, Iowa State 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 has won 12 NCAA team titles. Only the 2001 Minnesota Golden Gophers and 2025 Penn State Nittany Lions 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 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.

Five-time individual champion

''Sources'' * Carter Starocci ( Penn State), 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 ( Oklahoma State), 1990–1992, 1994 * Cael Sanderson ( Iowa State), 1999–2002 * Kyle Dake ( Cornell), 2010–2013 * Logan Stieber ( Ohio State), 2012−2015 * Yianni Diakomihalis ( Cornell), 2018−2019, 2022–2023 * Aaron Brooks ( Penn State), 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. ...

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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