This is a list of men's collegiate wrestling programs in the United States that compete in NCAA Division I. For the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's wrestling season, 77 schools in the United States sponsor Division I varsity men's wrestling.[1] This list reflects each team's conference affiliation as of that season.
Wrestling conferences
edit- Before its 2024 expansion, the Big Ten Conference was the only all-sport conference whose members (14) all competed in wrestling. The four newest members, Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington, do not sponsor wrestling.
- The seven wrestling schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) are all currently full members of the conference.
- The Mid-American Conference (MAC) has eight affiliate members in addition to five full members after adding the seven members of the Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) as new affiliates starting in the 2019–20 season.[2]
- Following the departure of Stanford to the ACC and Arizona State to the Big 12, the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) has only 4 members for 2024–25, with one full member and three associates.
- The Southern Conference (SoCon) with three full members meets the membership requirement by having six associate members, with the newest associate, Bellarmine being the most recent addition in 2020–21 and completing the transition from Division II at the end of the 2023-24 season.
- The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) is a wrestling-only conference that has 12 members in the 2024–25 season after the addition of Morgan State University. EIWA member Franklin & Marshall is the only Division III school competing in Division I wrestling.
- The Ivy League is the newest Division I wrestling league, having been formed after the 2023-2024 academic year. The six members that sponsor wrestling were previously members of the EIWA, but broke off after the 2023-24 season to have their own conference and tournament.[3]
- The Big 12 Conference (Big 12) had lost its NCAA recognition when wrestling membership fell to only four full member schools, despite the fact that three of those four schools had won a combined 49 NCAA Division I wrestling team titles. On July 29, 2015, the Big 12 announced that the members of the Western Wrestling Conference (which had six members, but was not recognized by the NCAA) had been accepted as affiliate members of the Big 12, increasing the number of participating schools to ten and restoring the conference's automatic bids. The Big 12 has since added three more wrestling affiliates, though one of these, namely Fresno State, dropped the sport after the 2020–21 season.[4] California Baptist was officially granted Division I status in August 2022.[5] Missouri, previously a full Big 12 member before moving to the Southeastern Conference, where it is currently the only school that sponsors wrestling, moved back to the conference as an affiliate in 2021-22 after spending the previous nine years as an affiliate member of the MAC.[6] Oklahoma remained in Big 12 wrestling after otherwise joining the SEC in 2024.
Current Division I schools
editNotes
edit- ^ The entire University at Buffalo has a Buffalo mailing address, but its athletic administration and almost all of its athletic facilities, including the wrestling venue, are in the adjacent town of Amherst.
- ^ Although the athletic department offices and most athletic facilities are within the Boston city limits and have a Boston mailing address, the wrestling venue is in Cambridge, also home to the university administration and its undergraduate campus.
In transition
edit| School | City | State | Nickname | Conference | Primary conference | National titles | Full membership |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercyhurst University | Erie | Pennsylvania | Lakers | – | Northeast Conference | – | July 2028[11] |
Map of Division I men's wrestling programs
edit
All Division I men's wrestling programs during the 2023-24 season. Conferences (clockwise from northeast): purple pog: EIWA, green pog: Ivy League, cyan pog: ACC, black pog: SoCon, green dot: Big 12, red pog: Pac-12, blue dot: Big Ten, orange pog: MAC, white pog: Independent. Labels: 1: American, 2: Army, 3: Bloomsburg, 4: Bucknell, 5: Clarion, 6: Columbia, 7: Drexel, 8: Edinboro, 9: Franklin & Marshall, 10: George Mason, 11: Hofstra, 12: Lehigh, 13: Lock Haven, 14: LIU, 15: Mercyhurst, 16: Penn, 17: Penn St., 18: Princeton, 19: Rider, 20: Rutgers, 21: Sacred Heart, 22: Maryland
Map of Defunct Division I men's wrestling programs (Since 1953)
edit 
Defunct Division I men's wrestling programs as of the 2022–23 season. Conference as of discontinuation (clockwise from northeast): blue marker: CAA, purple pog: EIWA, yellow pog: ACC, cyan pog: SEC, black pog: SoCon, green pog: Big 12, red pog: Pac-12, green marker: Big West, purple marker: Big Sky, yellow marker: WAC, orange pog: Missouri Valley, blue pog: OVC, white pog: MAC, black marker: Independent/Unknown Conference
Notes
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ "NCAA Sports Sponsorship". NCBA.org. Archived from the original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ "MAC Announces Historic Wrestling Expansion". Mid-American Conference. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ "Ivy League To Launch Wrestling Tournament Starting in 2025". ivyleague.com. December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
- ^ "Fresno State Athletics Announces Program Changes" (Press release). Fresno State Bulldogs. October 16, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ "CBU Wrestling Accepts Conditional Membership Status from Big 12 Conference" (Press release). California Baptist Lancers. February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
- ^ "Mizzou Wrestling Program Returns To Big 12 Conference". University of Missouri Athletics. April 22, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
- ^ "Division I Wrestling Championship History". NCAA. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
- ^ a b "Wrestling Championship Records/Championship History" (PDF). NAIA. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 24, 2012. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
- ^ "Division III Wrestling Championship History". NCAA. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e "Division II Wrestling Championship History". NCAA. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
- ^ "Welcome To The Lake Show: Mercyhurst University Accepts Northeast Conference Membership Invite" (Press release). Northeast Conference. April 4, 2024. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
- ^ "NCAA Qualifiers by Conference" (PDF). EIWA. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
- ^ "College Programs Dropped Nationally". USA Wrestling-Kansas. February 22, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
- ^ "Dropped College Wrestling Teams". mattalkonline.com. February 23, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2024.