Penn State wrestling has a National Duals Invitational spot if it wants it; will it accept?
Penn State is one of 12 college wrestling teams with an automatic entry into this year’s National Duals Invitational, if it wants it. The 16-team event, which Oklahoma State will host at the BOK Center in Tulsa, is set to take place Nov. 15-16. It will have a $1 million prize pool, with the winner taking home $200,000 of that pot.
The Nittany Lions, who are on a 71-match winning streak, can tie the Cowboys’ record of 76 consecutive triumphs by winning their first five dual meets and break it by winning their sixth in 2025-2026. Will any of them take place at the BOK Center in Tulsa? According to a news release, head coach Cael Sanderson and his staff will have until April 15 to decide if they are participating in the inaugural event. Based on past comments from the leader of the Nittany Lions, it’s more likely than not that they won’t be on hand. Sanderson has long opposed the idea of a national dual meet championship.
“I saw that coming around again,” Sanderson said back in January. “I think that’s just kind of always been what people think the answer is, the National Duals. Don’t really feel any differently now than I [did] about it 10 years ago, right? I mean, I think you can create a big event without including every team in the country.
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“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 [to] 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.”
A new episode of the Penn State wrestling show from Blue-White Illustrated drops at 5 p.m. ET on April 2! Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss it. And, check back tonight to watch it in this article below.
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Besides Penn State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cornell, NC State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech, and Michigan all have automatic entries that they can choose to accept or decline. After that, the bracket will be filled by a random draw on April 24. Schools in the running for that lottery include Purdue, Missouri, Lehigh, Penn, Arkansas-Little Rock, Arizona State, Stanford, West Virginia, Navy, Wyoming, South Dakota State, Indiana, Maryland and Oregon State.
More details, including the Nittany Lions’ final decision, will come out later this month.
