Penn State coach Cael Sanderson reiterates stance on potentially adding an NCAA dual meet championship; talks Nebraska and more

Some people within the college wrestling universe have either long believed or are starting to come around to the idea of adding a dual meet championship to the NCAA wrestling season in addition to the traditional postseason individual tournament that crowns one champion in all 10 weight classes. Don’t count Penn State coach Cael Sanderson among that group, though. He’s never been in favor of the idea and his stance hasn’t changed as the conversation about it starts anew after former Nittany Lion and current Oklahoma State coach David Taylor told FLO Wrestling that he thinks having a dual meet tournament to crown a champion in November would be ideal.

“I think you just pick a time at the beginning of the year and now you have two events,” Taylor said. “Dual meets are awesome, they’re easy to follow for the casual fan. You (put) it at the beginning of the year before the conference events start, and you get the best teams to come compete. You’re incentivized to wrestle your best lineup. You pick the projected best eight or 16 teams, you pick a date in November and people can prepare for it. Then you can alter your schedule and prepare for it as needed.”

What does Sanderson think of the idea?

Sanderson was asked about the idea coming again with those comments in mind on Monday. Here’s what he said:

“I saw that coming around again. I mean, they have somebody that’s trying to host the event down in Oklahoma. I think that’s just kind of always been what people think the answer is, the National Duals. I don’t really feel any differently now than I do about it 10 years ago, right? I mean, I think you can create a big event without including every team in the country, right?

“It’s sad that we think we have to have the National Duals to create a big event. I mean, we have a lot of really exciting teams, a lot of programs. So does that have to be at the National Duals? That just seems to be the mentality that they’re coming back and it resurfaces all the time. I think there’s obviously some merit to the idea, but it’s just kind of like a broken record.”

Looking back at Penn State-Nebraska

Penn State blasted Nebraska 31-7 last Friday night in Lincoln. Despite winning eight of 10 bouts, the No. 1 Nittany Lions didn’t wrestle as well as they could have, their legendary head coach said.

“Obviously Nebraska has a great team and really good coaches,” Sanderson said. “So, yeah, it was a nice environment. You expect it’s going to be a big match, and you get a lot of lot of good information on what we can do better when you see that kind of competition. So we didn’t wrestle great, but we wrestled, I guess, well enough. But more importantly, we can just kind of take that experience and grow and learn from it.”

More: 4 takeaways, plus full results, from the Lions’ 31-7 win over Nebraska

Why did Sanderson feel that way?

“We just look at the individual,” he said. “We looked like maybe we’re a little tired. But there were a lot of different factors too. You’re on the road. When you wrestle a really good team, they have the ability to make you feel like you didn’t wrestle great, too. So it’s late at night, you know, all those different things you’re trying to factor in. We’re thinking about the future and then training and what adjustments we need to make. But, yeah, I think the guys wrestled well. I mean, that’s one of those duals that you know right away, when you see that, it comes up in scheduling the guy, you’re like ‘OK, we got to be ready to go for us. Nebraska always got a great team.

“Every one of their guys are really good, and they’re going to be ready for us. But, yeah, you’re just thinking about each individual. What was their energy, like? What was, just kind of, the look their eyes? All those little different things. Technically, were we sharp? And the other thing too is, you don’t want to be at your absolute best in January, either, right? I mean, we’re trying to get ready to win the nationals in March and be at our best in March. But yeah, I mean, credit to Nebraska. They’re a great program, and we’ve got some great programs coming up.”