Penn State wrestling to skip National Duals Invitational for the second consecutive season

For the second consecutive offseason, long-expected news is now official: Penn State will not attend the National Duals Invitational. The event, which will put out $1,230,000 in prize money during a two-day tournament Dec. 12-13 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, will feature Ohio State, Arizona State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Iowa State, Minnesota, Missouri, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia Tech, and Wyoming. The Buckeyes won the event a year ago.

By virtue of being the defending national champ, Penn State had the opportunity to be in the field, if it wanted to be. But, there was never any indication that, after skipping last year’s inagural Duals, the Lions would go this time around.

“Just not really interested,” Sanderson said. “We’re always going to do what’s in the best interests of our kids and our team, and that’s my job and that’s what we’re going to do and that’s what we did. Create big events, that’s cool, but I think they knew right away when they were putting it when and where they were putting it, we’re probably not [going to participate] because we’re pretty consistent. We haven’t really changed a whole lot in that regard.

“We love the national tournament the way it is right now. There’s always been kind of a push to move the team championships to a dual format, which we’d be fine at. We do fine at duals. But we just love the format that it is now.”

Nationals Duals timing and the Penn State issue with it

First things first: Even if this event is at a different time of the year in the future, Penn State is still very unlikely to go. Sanderson’s words above should make that clear. But, the timing of it is an obstacle, too. Many teams could not go this year due to when their universities hold finals. The Lions did not have that as a reason not to go, as fall semester finals are Dec. 14 – 18 in 2026. But, Sanderson and co., surely had plenty of others. U23 and Senior Worlds do not fall as closely to the Duals this year as they did last year. But, they still are not far removed, and we know Penn State connections will be at both. And they usually have a lighter dual schedule during the first semester of the season.

All told, though, the Lions are simply not interested in going to the Duals at this point in time. Yet again, that was made clear during another spring.