Penn State wrestling could well be the best program in college sports.
After Cael Sanderson left his alma mater Iowa State to take over in Happy Valley, it didn’t take long for PSU to take over the wrestling world.
Over the past 12 seasons, Penn State’s won 10 national championships.
This year’s tournament starts this Thursday in Kansas City. So, what are Penn State’s chances of making it 11 of 13? Shockingly (not really), the chances are insanely good. Per DraftKings, Penn State opened at -300. That already made it the heavy favorite. Now, those odds have more than tripled, and Penn State currently sits at -1200.
And just like that, @DKSportsbook puts PSU at -1200 after opening at -300 (I hope some fans put their life savings on that)…. pic.twitter.com/gu1xnluaWb
— The Wrestling Room (Pat Mineo) (@MrPatMineo) March 18, 2024
The next best bet is Virginia Tech at +15000. VT is followed by another ACC school in North Carolina State at +1800. As far as the Big Ten goes, Iowa is the second-best bet at +2200, followed by Nebraska at +4000 and Michigan at +5000.
There’s minimal, if any, suspense as to whether Penn State will win its third straight team title.
The two big questions are; will Penn State have all 10 of its starters finish as All Americans, and how many individual national champions will Penn State have?
Minnesota is the only school to have 10 All Americans, accomplishing that feat in 2001. But of those 10 Gophers, none of them won a national title.
Nonetheless, Minnesota still placed highly enough to win a team national championship. Nobody knows how many individual national championships this Penn State wrestling team will have, but it’s a safe bet that the number will be > zero.
Another interesting footnote about the 2001 Minnesota team is that Sanderson won his third individual national title, beating future UFC legend Daniel Cormier in the finals.
