The National Duals Invitational is a dual tournament pitting 16 of the best teams in the NCAA against one another for over one million dollars in prize money and is sponsored by paycom. It will take place
on Saturday and Sunday in Tulsa. Most of the action will be streamed on Flo Wrestling, with finals appearing on ESPN2 Sunday at 19:00 EST.
Penn State is fresh off of sending 7 wrestlers to U23 Worlds in Novi Sad, Serbia on October 27 and has turned down the invitation to compete. Coach Cael was asked during November 11’s media availability: “Can you speak on the National Duals and with it going on and the decision to not be a part of that? And is that something that you’ll reevaluate on a year-to-year basis if it continues? But why not be a part of that this time around?”
His reply:
Yeah, maybe.
I mean, it’s been a discussion since we got here and even before. And, you know, we’re going to do what’s in the best interest of the kids on our team. I mean, we just had seven guys wrestling world championships two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago.
But maybe in the future, I mean, when the person that was kind of I think sponsoring it and Mike Moyer called, you know, I just said, yeah, create an event that everyone wants to be a part of, you know, and that we’re asking you to be a part of, right? But, yeah, it’s, you know, I think create big events, that’s cool.
But, yeah, I’m not – I think they knew right away when they were putting it when and where they were putting it (Oklahoma, early first semester), you know, we’re probably not because we’re pretty consistent, you know. We haven’t really changed a whole lot in that regard, you know.
We love the national tournament the way it is right now. There’s always been a kind of a push to move the team championship to a dual format, which we’d be fine at. You know, I mean, we do fine in duals, but we just love the format that it is now. And there’s always, you know, these kind of these hidden motives it seems. So, yeah, we’re just not really interested. We’re always going to do what’s in the best interest of our kids and our team. We’re not going to – and that’s just – that’s my job and that’s what we’re going to do and that’s what we did.
Even though Penn State is not participating and it’s early enough in the season that a number of highly-ranked wrestlers may not be ready to begin competing, there are so many other top teams it could be packed full of good wrestling. Which teams? These (along with their Intermat dual ranking, 2025 NCAA finish, and seed):
- # 2 Nebraska [2nd] (2-seed)
- # 4 Iowa [4th] (1-seed)
- # 5 Oklahoma State [3rd] (4-seed)
- # 6 Ohio State [T-5th] (3-seed)
- # 7 Lehigh [15th]
- # 8 Michigan [12th]
- # 9 NC State [8th]
- #10 Minnesota [T-5th]
- #11 Virginia Tech [11th]
- #12 Illinois [10th]
- #13 Cornell [7th]
- #16 Northern Iowa [9th]
- #17 Missouri [14th]
- #25 Little Rock [17th]
- #29 Wyoming [22nd]
- UR Arizona State [18th]
Teams that finished in the top 12 of last year’s NCAA championships received automatic offers. Any remaining slots were filled by random draw from NCAA 2025 teams #13–24. This is why Intermat #3 Iowa State, the other glaring omission, is not participating: they finished in 27th last year.
Format
Tournament will be a series of duals taking place over two days. Only the top four teams were seeded, with other slots filled by a random draw. Teams that lose in the first or second round will have the opportunity to wrestle back to 5th place. The semi-final losers will wrestle for 3rd.
Here’s the schedule (times EST):
- Sat 10:00 R16:
- (1) #4 Iowa v #17 Missouri
- #12 Illinois v #25 Little Rock
- #16 Northern Iowa v #9 NC State
- (4) #5 Oklahoma State v #13 Cornell
- Sat 12:00 R16:
- (3) #6 Ohio State v #29 Wyoming
- #11 Virginia Tech v #10 Minnesota
- Arizona State v #8 Michigan
- (2) #2 Nebraska v #7 Lehigh
- Sat 16:00 Consolation R16
- Sat 18:00 Quarterfinals
- Sat 20:00 Consolation R12
- Sun 11:00 Semifinals and Consolation Quarterfinals
- Sun 13:00 7th/5th/3rd
- Sun 19:00 Finals
Programs will win cash prizes based on their finish:
- 1st $200k
- 2nd $150k
- 3rd $150k
- 4th $75k
- 5th $50k
- 6th $40k
- 7th $25k
- 8th $20k
Each team will also receive $20k for participating.
In addition, each of the five first-day sessions will feature a $10k bonus to the team with the fastest average takedown time across their five wrestlers with the fastest takedowns.
