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College wrestling's new $1 million tournament will go on without Penn State. The Nittany Lions, who have won four straight team titles at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, chose not to participate in the National Duals Invitational scheduled for November in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Penn State did not accept an invitation to the 16-team duals tournament that will serve as the kickoff to the 2025-26 college wrestling season.
The top 12 teams from the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships received invitations to the National Duals Invitational, which will feature a total prize purse of more than $1 million. Penn State was the only team among the 12 that did not accept the invitation. The National Duals Invitational field will feature six Big Ten teams, including NCAA runnerup Nebraska.
It also will feature Oklahoma State, the host team coached by former Penn State national champion David Taylor. However, Penn State elected not to participate, something coach Cael Sanderson foreshadowed when discussing the event during the regular season. “I saw that coming around again," Sanderson said in January after the event was announced.
"I mean, they have somebody that’s trying to host the event down in Oklahoma. I think that’s just kind of always been what people think the answer is the national duals. I don’t really feel any differently now than I do about it 10 years ago, right? I mean, I think you can create a big event without including every team in the country, right?" RELATED: Penn State has a new wrestling rival, coached by old friend David Taylor Without Penn State, the National Duals Invitational will not have the most dominant team in college wrestling.
At the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia , Penn State became just the second program in college wrestling history to place all 10 starters as All-Americans in the same tournament. Two Nittany Lions won NCAA titles, with Carter Starocci becoming the first five-time national champion in Division I wrestling history. Penn State also broke its own tournament scoring record as five wrestlers finished third and every Nittany Lion placed sixth or better.
Penn State also owns the nation's longest dual-meet winning streak of 71 consecutive matches dating to 2020. The Nittany Lions can break Oklahoma State's Division I record streak of 76 consecutive matches next season. Organizers of the National Duals Invitational sought to revive the preseason college duals tournament through a big purse.
Sponsored by Paycom, a payroll services company based in Oklahoma City, the National Duals Invitational guarantees $20,000 to each participating team. The winning team earns $200,000, and the second-and third-place teams take home $150,000. Teams finishing from fourth to eighth earn between $20,000 and $75,000.
"The vision for this stems from the desire to create something that wrestling is deserving of," tournament director Matt Surber said during the selection show on FloWrestling. "That's a marquee event with high stakes, top-tier competition and national attention on it." Sanderson has coached Penn State in national duals events before.
The Nittany Lions last wrestled against Oklahoma State in 2017 at the NWCA National Duals Championship Series. Penn State defeated the Cowboys 27-13 in the February match in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which preceded the postseason tournaments. Penn State also defeated Oklahoma State in the NWCA Duals Championship Series in 2016.
The National Duals Invitational is scheduled for Nov. 15-16 at Bok Center in Tulsa. Teams will compete during four sessions over the two days.
The championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on Sunday.
Here's a look at the 16-team tournament field: Oklahoma State Nebraska Ohio State Iowa Minnesota Michigan Illinois North Carolina State Northern Iowa Cornell North Carolina State Missouri* Lehigh* Arkansas Little-Rock* Wyoming* Arizona State* *Teams selected via lottery.
