STATE COLLEGE — The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team announced its schedule for the 2025-26 season. Penn State will have seven home dual meets and serve as host for the 2026 Big Ten Championships in March. The Nittany Lions will compete four times in the Bryce Jordan Center this year, hosting three dual meets as well as the Big Ten Championships in the venue.

The season begins on Friday, Nov. 14, when Penn State welcomes Oklahoma to State College for a 7 p.m. dual meet in the Bryce Jordan Center. The next weekend, Penn State travels to Army West Point for the Black Knight Invitational on Sunday, Nov. 23, in West Point, N.Y. Penn State visits Drexel on Friday, Dec. 5, for a 7:30 p.m. dual meet in Philadelphia 

Two days later, Penn State returns home for its annual match-up against Lehigh. The Nittany Lions and Mountain Hawks will meet on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 1 p.m. in Rec Hall. Penn State then heads west to Laramie, Wyo., to face the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday, Dec. 13. The Nittany Lions close out the first semester on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Collegiate Duals in Nashville, Tenn. Penn State will face Stanford and North Dakota State at the event (times TBA).

Penn State will dive right into the Big Ten season, wrestling in five duals in 15 days to start the conference slate. The Nittany Lions begin the Big Ten season at home, hosting Rutgers on Saturday, Jan. 10, in Rec Hall. Penn State visits Iowa on Friday, Jan. 16, and Northwestern on Sunday, Jan. 18.

 The next weekend, Penn State hosts Indiana on Fri., Jan. 23 in Rec Hall and then heads to Maryland on Sunday, Jan. 25, for a road dual with the Terrapins. Penn State welcomes Nebraska to the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, Jan. 30, to close out the January portion of the schedule.

February begins with Penn State in Ann Arbor, Mich., for a dual at Michigan on Friday, Feb. 6. Penn State closes out the Big Ten dual slate the next weekend, hosting Ohio State on Friday, Feb. 13, in the third BJC Dual of the year. The Nittany Lions end the regular season by hosting Princeton in Rec Hall on Friday, Feb. 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Penn State will serve as the host institution for the 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. The two day event will take place in the Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8. The 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships will take place on Thursday through Saturday, March 19-21, in Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.

The Nittany Lions won 2025 NCAA Championship, clinching it early Saturday morning in session five, with 177.0 points. Penn State finished a full 60.0 points ahead of second place Nebraska’s 117.0 The team point total of 177.0 is a new NCAA record, breaking the mark of 172.5, set by Penn State last year in Kansas City. Penn State has now won 12 of the last 15 contest NCAA Championships (no event in 2020) and its fourth straight for the third time since Sanderson became head coach in April of 2009. Sanderson is now second in all-time NCAA history with 12 coaching titles to his credit.

The NCAA record is 15. The Nittany Lions have won the NCAA Championship in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 1953. Early in the tournament on Friday night, Penn State secured 10 All-Americans for the first time in school history, becoming only the second team in NCAA history to do so (Minnesota, 2001). All of Penn State’s 10 All-Americans placed in the top six. The Nittany Lions now have 264 All-Americans, 101 under head coach Cael Sanderson in just 16 seasons.

Penn State has also dominated the Big Ten. The team stormed the field at the 2025 Big Ten Championship to claim its ninth Big Ten Championship, all under Sanderson. The Nittany Lions ran away from the field, winning the title with 181.5 points, a new school record (breaking the mark of 170.5 set last year). Five Nittany Lions won individual titles, also tying a school record. The title was Penn State’s ninth conference championship, having also won in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Penn State now has 69 Big Ten Champions spread among 37 individuals. Penn State’s five champions ties the school record, set in 2024 and 2011.