There are 12 teams that have the option to compete in November’s National Duals Invitational and Penn State Wrestling, of course, is one of them.
The fact that the team which owns 12 of the last 14 national championships was invited is about as surprising as Paul Skenes putting together a quality start (not very surprising).
But what people are wondering is whether or not Penn State would want to compete.
Past comments courtesy of none other than coach Cael Sanderson himself suggest that this isn’t something Penn State would necessarily be eager to participate in. But the ball is certainly in PSU’s court.
WHAT IS THIS TOURNAMENT?
So, what exactly is this tournament, anyway?
Well, the National Dual Invitationals are a 16-team tournament hosted by Oklahoma State. It’s set to take place at Tulsa’s BOK Center— which is where Penn State won the 2023 national title— from Nov. 15-16. The total prize pool will be $1 million, with the winning school getting $200,000 of that. Other teams that have automatic bids are Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cornell, NC State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech and Michigan, and each has the option of accepting or declining. How will the other five spots be determined? A random lottery draw scheduled for April 24.
The teams in the running are: Purdue, Missouri, Lehigh, Penn, Arkansas-Little Rock, Arizona, State, Stanford, West Virginia, Navy, Wyoming, South Dakota State, Indiana, Maryland and Oregon State.
WHAT CAEL HAS SAID
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: Cael Sanderson
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Here’s what Cael has said about national duals in the past, discussing the matter at a media availability in January.
“I saw that coming around again,” Sanderson said. “I think that’s just kind of always been what people think the answer is, the National Duals. Don’t really feel any differently now than I [did] about it 10 years ago, right? I mean, I think you can create a big event without including every team in the country.”
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“It’s sad that we think we have to have the National Duals to create a big event. I mean, we have a lot of really exciting teams, a lot of programs. So does that have to be at the National Duals? That just seems to be the mentality that they’re coming back [to] and it resurfaces all the time. I think there’s obviously some merit to the idea, but it’s just kind of like a broken record.”
In short, Cael isn’t a huge fan.
Penn State has until April 15 to decide if it wants to partake.
