National Collegiate Wrestling Association

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While the NCWA currently has over 100 schools in competition, a few programs have distinguished themselves as top-tier programs.

While the NCWA currently has over 100 schools in competition, it has also been home to many programs that transitioned from one association to another or that originated as an NCWA program and later changed associations.

• Collegiate weight classes are used (125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, 285 lbs).
• All meets and tournaments use NCAA rules and procedures.
• All conferences host a Conference Championships tournament with a specific allotment of automatic qualifiers based on placement finish in the Conference Championships.
• Like the NAIA, a school can enter two wrestlers in the same weight class at the Conference and National Championships (if they both qualify for the latter); one is deemed the scorer and the other the non-scorer (no advancement, match, or placement points are awarded to this wrestler).
• Like the NAIA, the NCWA allows a student-athlete four total seasons of eligibility regardless of time frame. The NCAA require students to complete their four seasons of eligibility in five years starting from the student's first year of competition (barring a sixth-year grant for hardship). Athletes previously competing for an NCAA, NJCAA, or CCCAA program that transfer to the NCWA will still have the remaining number of eligible seasons without the previous time frame.
• Like the WCWA, schools traditionally competing in the NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, or CCCAA can all compete against one another.

As mentioned before, the NCWA allows many types of funding to its wrestling programs that might not be allowed by the NCAA. This can allow the wrestling team to grow at its own rate.

The NCWA is the only association with collegiate wrestling to offer an 11th weight class: 235 lbs. There are a number of benefits from this:

• This weight class bridges the weight gap between the 197 lb and 285 lb weight classes, the biggest weight disparity among any two weight classes.
• College wrestlers who wrestled in the 195 or 220 lb weight classes in high school might find this easier to compete in than having to wrestle at 197 lbs or 285 lbs.
• Schools who have two or more prominent athletes in the 197 and/or 285 lb weight classes can now give their athletes another chance to succeed individually and earn team points.
• Another weight class leads to higher team scores at tournaments.
• The 11th weight class can often be used as a tiebreaker as the first criterion of "Number of Matches Won" in dual meet settings.

Starting in the 2013–2014 season, the National Championships in March and the Collegiate Cup Duals (previously known as the National Dual Meet Championship) directly related to each other in a team's point total. A team's finish at the Collegiate Cup Duals transferred to additional points being awarded at the National Championships.

The National Wrestling Coaches Association (or "NWCA") have a National Duals tournament for NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA, NJCAA, and NCWA teams, but all do not tie into their respective National Championships point totals. Penn State University (NCAA D-I) won four straight National Championships from 2011 to 2014 – without ever competing in the NCAA D-I entry of the National Duals. The NCWA's National Championship Series is the first of any of the college divisions to have a true champion that is indicative of both its team's as well as its individuals' success.

Starting in 2016, the NCWA launched the GoGreco Program with USA Wrestling.[38] While USA Wrestling's Freestyle and Greco-Roman season and procedures are separate from the wrestling teams and individuals that participate in them, the NCWA owns and operates the GoGreco Program within their domain and directly controls and promotes another wrestling opportunity. This is the first collegiate-level Greco-Roman wrestling national championship. The inaugural championships will take place on June 3, 2017 in Dallas, Texas on the campus of Richland College.

The first tournament, the Texas GoGreco Championships, took place on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at Richland College. The University of North Texas won the tournament with six of seven wrestlers winning in the finals. Richland College and University of Houston–Downtown finished second and third, respectively.[39]

Whereas the WCWA has athletes compete in freestyle, the NCWA has its women's division compete in collegiate folkstyle wrestling. There are a number of teams that compete in both the WCWA and NCWA to give their athletes more competitive opportunity.

From 2010–2011, the Champions Challenge was formed by the NAIA and NCWA to bring more highlight matches to the wrestling community by pitting NAIA All-Stars against NCWA All-Stars at each weight class in a dual meet (except for 235 lbs since the NAIA does not recognize that weight class in competition). The All-Stars were usually the highest returning All-American at each weight class barring injury; the coaching staffs were one or two coaches for each school represented in the dual. The NCAA Division II is slated to join in the next event.

In 2008, the NCWA approved the National Dual Meet Championship where the top teams in the country would compete against one another to crown a true team champion starting in 2009. No other association had an official dual-based team champion at the time and that is still the case except in the NCWA. The current structure has 24 teams competing in a bracketed format down to 24 places.

In its thirteenth season, the NCWA hosted its first National Dual Meet Championship. Whereas the National Championships focuses more on individual success and teams can depend on one or a few exceptional wrestlers, the National Duals highlights teams with solid line-ups and good wrestlers at each weight class. It is common for teams that win or place highly in the National Duals to do so at the National Championships later. The National Duals usually take place in late January before the National Championships.

Starting in the 2013–2014 season, two changes took place: 1) the National Dual Meet Championship was now renamed as the Collegiate Cup Duals and 2) a team's finish at the Collegiate Cup Duals would earn it a certain amount of team points at the National Championships and aid them in winning it. Two major reasons for this change were to 1) encourage more teams to want to wrestle in the Collegiate Cup Duals and, 2) while still recognizing up to two different champions at the two different tournaments, one team could be determined as the best true overall team and individual wrestling champion that year.

During the 2017 Vision Forum, the NCWA ruled that the National Dual Meet Championship will be held on the eastern side of the United States during even-numbered years and on the western side of the United States during odd-numbered years.

The 6:12 Project is a community outreach program created by the NCWA for its wrestlers, coaches, officials, volunteers, and staff to help the city hosting the NCWA National Duals. NCWA wrestling programs serve food to those in need and hold canned and non-perishable food drives. They later donate those goods, as well as clothes (especially jackets), to one of the city's organizations.

The name "6:12 Project" comes from the Biblical quote Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12 from the New Testament:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

The first 6:12 Project took place at the 2012 National Duals in Dalton, Georgia and repeated for the 2013 and 2014 events which were also held in Dalton. It is scheduled to continue at the 2015 Collegiate Cup Duals in Dalton again.

Initially created as the Western Regional Duals, this event was created in order to give teams in the western and central part of North America the opportunity to compete in a national dual meet event like the National Dual Meet Championship.

Historically, the National Dual Meet Championship has been hosted on the eastern side of the United States in Georgia, Tennessee, or Virginia. When the Collegiate Cup was passed in 2013, questions and concerns were raised as to whether teams closer to the physical location of the National Dual Meet Championship would have an unfair competitive advantage in terms of championship points calculated for the Collegiate Cup series.

At the 2017 Vision Forum, the NCWA passed a resolution stating that in even-numbered years the National Duals would take place on the eastern side and the Regional Duals on the western side; in odd-numbered years, the National Duals would take place at a western location and the Regional Duals an eastern location.

Following the inaugural season, the NCWA approved a five-conference format where wrestlers would compete for advancement into the National Championships as well as seeding if they qualified. The number of conferences has fluctuated throughout the years including reaching a record high of 9 and currently set at 8. Additionally, some conferences have been re-named over the years. These conferences are geographically-based and are similar to the National Championships tournament where Division I and II programs wrestle in one bracket, but differ in that team scores are kept as one tournament (unlike the National Championships having a Division I team score and Division II team score).

The day before competition starts at the National Championships, the NCWA hosts a wrestling combine for athletes to showcase their talents to observing college coaches. Most athletes are high school student-athletes which is the primary focus, however students at a post-secondary institution without a wrestling program may also attend. The event also allows students to ask questions about collegiate competition to college coaches.

The first major event the NCWA hosted took place in 1998 was the inaugural National Championships with 26 teams in one division in the 10 then-standard weight classes. Since then, the event has grown to include approximately 340 qualifiers among 150+ teams within the 11 NCWA weight classes where two champions are crowned (Division I and Division II).

Here, individuals are recognized for their outstanding individual achievement. They can earn team points (unless they are the non-scorer on their team) by advancing through the tournament, scoring bonus points in matches, and placing in the top 8. Teams accumulate points from all of their scoring wrestlers. The National Championships have traditionally been held in the middle of March. Division I and Division II teams compete in one bracketed tournament where the overall team points are separated at the end between the two.

In 1998, the NCWA approved an eleventh weight class, the 235 lb weight class.

In 2007, the NCWA approved All-American status for wrestlers placing in top 8. Previously, only the top 6 wrestlers in each weight class were named All-Americans.

In 2010, the NCWA approved a two-division classification system - the Division I level composed of established teams meeting specific criteria and the Division II tier where up-start teams as well as teams aiming to join Division I would compete.

Since the 2013–2014 season when the Collegiate Cup championship series was passed, teams' National Championships points are added with their National Dual Meet Championship finish points to determine the overall team champion.

In 2020, multiple teams and individual wrestlers withdrew from the tournament before or during the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first Women's Collegiate Wrestling Championships took place at the 2008 National Championships. The NCWA sponsored this event under their new banner organization, the National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Association (NCWWA). The weight classes have been designed to closely resemble most female athletes' natural weight ranges as well as let programs that also compete in women's collegiate freestyle to acclimate to folkstyle competition. To date, the NCWA is still the only collegiate association in the United States to officially recognize women's collegiate wrestling. Whereas before matches were done using freestyle rules, as was the norm with associations like the WCWA, the NCWWA uses collegiate/folkstyle rules like in the NCWA, NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA.

No team score was recorded at the inaugural 2008 tournament, but since then team score has been kept. Bo Icalia and Josh White are tied for head coaches to have won the most titles; Icalia won the 2010 and 2011 titles as head coach of Yakima Valley Community College and the 2012 and 2013 titles as head coach of Southwestern Oregon Community College. White has won the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 titles all with Southwestern Oregon Community College.

The top 3 wrestlers in each weight class are recognized as All-Americans. University of South Florida's Jasmine Grant is the NCWWA's first and only 4x All-American (2011–2014) so far. University of Maine's Samantha Frank has won 3 national titles going into the 2017–2018 season.

The Women's College Wrestling Championships has traditionally been dominated by northern and northwestern teams.

In 2020, multiple teams and individual wrestlers withdrew from the tournament before or after it had started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approved in 2016, the GoGreco Program was launched with USA Wrestling in order to improve the U.S.A.'s performance in Junior- and Senior-level Greco-Roman competition. The GoGreco season starts on the last weekend of March and concludes with the GoGreco Collegiate National Championships on the first weekend of June.[195]

GoGreco Nationals is an open-entry event to any NCWA Member institution. NCAA, NAIA & NJCAA institutions that are not currently a member of the NCWA are encouraged to join the NCWA for the GoGreco Season and to send athletes to the Nationals. Student-athletes must maintain the same academic standards that are required of the NCWA and their member institutions in order to compete.

The inaugural championships took place on June 3, 2017 in Dallas, Texas on the campus of Richland College.

Every year since 1997, the NCWA's Vision Forum convenes during the wrestling off-season in the summer and is held at about the same location as and set a few days before the National Wrestling Coaches Association Convention. The Vision Forum focuses on the NCWA rule changes, policies, and procedures from the previous season and if any modifications need to be made or new topics need to be discussed. The 2017 Vision Forum will be held from Wednesday, August 2 to Sunday, August 6 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Some important changes and events that have come from the Vision Forum:

• Women's division for the National Dual Meet Championship; passed in 2019
• National Duals and Regional Duals to switch between eastern- and western-based locations every year; passed in 2017
• Western Regional Duals; passed in 2016
• "Recruit Me" High School Wrestling Combine; passed in 2015
• Go Greco Initiative[198]; passed in 2015
• Collegiate Cup National Championships Series; passed in 2013
• National Collegiate Grappling Association; passed in 2013
• Seven conferences re-aligned into nine conferences; passed in 2012
• Use of mat-side instant replay for officials; passed in 2011
• Two men's divisions - Division I and Division II; passed in 2010
• National Dual Meet Championship; passed in 2008
• Added women's division (National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Association)[199]; passed in 2007
• Addition of 7th and 8th-place finishes at National Championships into All-American finishes; passed in 2006
• First National Championships to take place outside of Texas; passed in 2001
• Addition of an 11th weight class, the 235 lb weight class; passed in 1998

^M: Denotes Men's Championship.
^W: Denotes Women's Championship.
^D1: Denotes Men's Division I Championship.
^D2: Denotes Men's Division II Championship.
^GG: Denotes GoGreco Championship.

At the 2013 Vision Forum, the NCWA approved a new National Championships Series to crown a true National Team Champion. With the National Dual Meet Championship, the team that wins the Collegiate Cup will earn 24 team points. The runner-up will receive 23, third-place 22, and so forth until the 23rd-place team receives 2 points. All other teams that participated, but did not place in the top 23 will receive 1 point. Those points will be carried over to the individual-based National Championships where teams will continue to score points based on their individual athletes' performances.

The winner of the Collegiate Cup will have accrued the most total points between both events and be presented with the College Cup as the overall NCWA National Champions. Grand Canyon University was the first champion of the new format in 2014.

Wrestling clubs in the NCWA: Bloomsburg University, Edinboro University, Ferrum College, Fresno State University, Iowa State University, Lehigh University, Michigan State University, Northern Illinois University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, Sacred Heart University, State University of New York - Cortland, University of Buffalo, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Northern Colorado, University of Pittsburgh, University of Wisconsin, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Tech University.