This really makes me wonder about NIL in wrestling

by Mark, Monday, March 23, 2026, 11:00 (10 days ago) @ Domer99

Someone is going to go after stealing/winning talent away from PSU and Oklahoma St and Iowa have the historical pedigree.

Here’s the historical data (only 12 schools have won wrestling NC’s):

The "Big Six" (Multiple Titles): These programs have defined the different eras of college wrestling:

- Oklahoma State: 34 titles
- Iowa: 24 titles
- Penn State: 14 titles (including the 2026 championship won this past weekend)
- Iowa State: 8 titles
- Oklahoma: 7 titles
- Minnesota: 3 titles

The "Single Title" Winners: Only six other programs in history have managed to climb to the top of the mountain for a single season:

- Arizona State (1988)
- Ohio State (2015)
- Michigan State (1967)
- Northern Iowa (1950)
- Cornell College (Iowa) (1947) — Notably the only private school to ever win.
- Indiana (1932)

If David Taylor and team can at least make the team balance between PSU and Okla St competitive than I could see other schools trying to mimic the competition. I’m really surprised schools like tOSU and UM (with their huge fan bases) havent identified donors to make more wrestling NIL deals for their programs. You know they dont like seeing PSU dominate the Big 10.

The NC would definitely be a lot more interesting if PSU had some competition.