Best Wrestling Colleges – 2025

When I sat down to write about the best wrestling colleges in the country, I got a little glum. Because I wish I’d taken up wrestling when I was younger. My dad wrestled when he was in high school, and although he never came right out and pressured me, he routinely dropped hints that I ought to try it out. But I never did, and I regret it. I’m not saying that I should’ve ended up at one of the best wrestling colleges, like Penn State or Iowa. But having more stamina, a better understanding of the principles of self-defense (I currently have no understanding), more spatial awareness, more control over my body—all of those things would benefit me immensely. As has happened so many times before, I realized too late that my parents actually had some sound advice for the teenage me.

Yeah: hindsight is twenty-twenty. I continued preparing to write. And as I researched the best wrestling colleges, I found myself reading more and more about the history of the sport, which is totally fascinating. So before we get to the list of the best wrestling colleges, here’s a tiny primer—

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Wrestling is probably humanity’s oldest sport. “Probably” because the boundary between sport and combat was blurry in prehistoric times. Archaeologists in France discovered cave drawings 20,000 years old that contain depictions of wrestling. Neolithic-age cave paintings of men grappling were discovered in Mongolia, and there’s pictorial evidence that the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians wrestled, too. But the roots of wrestling are deeper and older still—wrestling-style mock combat has also been observed in the Great Apes.

The earliest textual descriptions of wrestling are the Greek and Sanskrit epics. Wrestling was the centerpiece of the Greek Olympic games; lists of wrestling winners at the Olympics date back to 708 BC. The history of wrestling in Japan goes back at least 2000 years, and there are Ancient Chinese stories that describe wrestling tournaments.

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All of that is to say, in an extremely simplified way, that wrestling can’t be traced back to a single point of origin. The forms of wrestling that we recognize today—the Greco-Roman and freestyle forms as practiced at the Olympics, the “collegiate” or “folkstyle” form as practiced at American colleges—became popular in 19th century in Europe and the United States.

So what are the best wrestling colleges? Check out the list below.

Best Men’s Wrestling Colleges

Note: this list of the best wrestling colleges is based on the NWCA Coaches’ Poll from February 2025.

25) Missouri

24) Army West Point

23) West Virginia

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22) Lehigh

21) Indiana

20) Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s wrestling program was founded back in 1920, and it’s one of the most decorated programs in college wrestling history. The Sooners’ wrestling squad has won a total of seven NCAA team championships, the fourth-most all time; their last championship came in 1974. The Sooners also boast an impressive roster of alumni who’ve gone on to dominate at the international and Olympic level. Gold medalists Dave Schultz, Mark Schultz, and Wayne Wells all wrestled for Oklahoma, as did Dan Hodge, who’s widely considered to be one of the best amateur wrestlers of all time.

19) Michigan

18) Pittsburgh

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17) Stanford

16) North Carolina

15) Little Rock

14) Iowa State

Iowa State has long been a force in college wrestling. The Cyclones have won eight national team championships; only three schools—Penn State, Iowa, and Oklahoma State—have won more. The Cyclones’ last national title came in 1987.

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13) Illinois

12) Rutgers

11) South Dakota State

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10) Virginia Tech

9) Cornell

Cornell is one of the best wrestling colleges that’s never won a national title. Twenty Big Red wrestlers have become NCAA individual champions, and the Big Won have won the Ivy League wrestling championships 44 times since the team was founded in 1907

And even though the Big Red have never won an NCAA team championship, they’ve come close a handful of times in recent years. In 2010, they finished runners-up to Iowa. The following year, they finished runners-up to Penn State. And last year they fell again to Penn State in the championship round.

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8) Ohio State

Although the Buckeyes have only won the NCAA team championship once in their history—that championship came in 2015, when they beat Iowa in the final and in so doing prevented Penn State from winning a fifth title in a row—they’re one of the best squads in all of college wrestling. The Buckeyes have finished runners-up in the NCAA championship five times. Most recently, and heartbreakingly for Buckeyes fans, they reached the finals in three consecutive years in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and each time they were bested by Penn State. The Ohio State-Penn State rivalry might not be as feverish as some of the most notorious college football rivalries, but it’s got to be one of the best rivalries in college wrestling.

The Buckeyes have finished within the top three best-ranked wrestling programs in each of the last five years.

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7) NC State

6) Minnesota

Minnesota is another college wrestling powerhouse. Wrestling at the University of Minnesota goes back to 1910, and the Golden Gophers have won the NCAA team national championship three times: in 2001, 2002, and 2007. They’ve also produced 23 NCAA individual champions and 195 All-Americans. At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, former Golden Gopher Gable Steveson took home a gold medal in the 125 kg class Freestyle.

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5) Nebraska

Coming in at 5^th on the list of the best wrestling colleges is the University of Nebraska. Since the program came into being in 1910, the Cornhuskers’ wrestling squad has a record of 773-576-29. In that time they’ve won their conference tournament championship a total of seven times, and eleven total Cornhuskers have become NCAA individual champions. The Cornhuskers’ men’s wrestling program has been headed by Mark Manning since 2000; under Manning’s tenure as head coach, they’ve gone 294-107-3, which comes out to a winning percentage of .731. That kind of sustained dominance is why the University of Nebraska is one of the best wrestling colleges in the country.

4) Northern Iowa

For decades, the University of Northern Iowa has had one of the best wrestling programs in the country. There are plenty of accolades to list, but the highlights include three team national championships (the Panthers’ first came in 1950, when the NCAA consisted of a single division; their next two came in 1975 and 1978, when they competed as a Division II school). They’ve finished as national runners-up four times and had several wrestlers become NCAA Division I individual champions. Plus, they boast a handful of alumni who went on to compete in the Olympic Games. Gerry Leeman, competing in the 57 kg class, took home a silver medal in the 1948 London games, and Bill Smith, who competed in the 73 kg class, won gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

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3) Iowa

Only Oklahoma State has won more NCAA Division I wrestling championships than have the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa’s wrestling squad has won the national championship a total of 24 times, a track record that makes them one of the best wrestling colleges of all time. The Hawkeyes’ first national championship came in 1975, and their most recent came in 2021. They were particularly dominant in the 90s; the only years that the Hawkeyes didn’t take home the national championship in that decade were 1990 and 1994. The Hawkeyes have also produced a whole host of NCAA individual champions and Olympic champions. In the 2020 Tokyo games, Oklahoma State alum Thomas Gilman took home a bronze medal in the 57 kg class Men’s Freestyle event; at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, ex-Hawkeye Spencer Lee took home a silver medal in the same event.

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2) Oklahoma State

There’s definitely an argument that Oklahoma State is the best wrestling college of all time. With 34 team national titles on their resume, they’ve won more championships than any other school in NCAA history. Since the wrestling program was started in 1914, the Cowboys have produced 143 individual NCAA champions and 488 All-Americans. Their overall record is 1185-140-23, and twelve Olympic gold medalists were once Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys’ last team national championship came in 2006.

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1) Penn State

Penn State tops the list of the best wrestling colleges because the Nittany Lions have been, hands down, the most dominant wrestling program in the NCAA over the past two decades. They’re sort of like the Crimson Tide of wrestling. The Nittany Lions have won 12 team national championships, and eleven of them have come since 2011 (they won their first in 1953). Penn State rattled off a string of four championships in a row from 2011 to 2014; they achieved another streak of four titles in a row between 2016 and 2019; and they’re currently three-time defending champs, having won national titles in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Best Women’s Wrestling Colleges

Earlier this year, women’s wrestling became an NCAA championship sport. In 2026, female athletes from Division I, II, and III schools will compete for the first women’s wrestling NCAA championship.

That doesn’t mean, however, the women’s wrestling didn’t exist at the collegiate level before this year. More than 150 colleges currently have women’s wrestling programs, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has held women’s wrestling championships since 2019.

The list of the best women’s wrestling colleges that follows is based on the most recent NWCA (National Wrestling Coaches Association) poll.

Best Women’s Wrestling Colleges

10) Aurora

9) Colorado Mesa University

8) Simon Fraser

7) Lindenwood (Mo.)

6) Presbyterian College

5) McKendree University

4) Grand Valley State

3) King University

2) North Central (IL)

1) Iowa

Best Wrestling Colleges – Additional Resources

• NCAA Men’s Wrestling Teams
• NCAA Women’s Wrestling Teams
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• 15 Best College Football (and Other Sports) Traditions
• 28 Highest Paid College Athletes