The Toughest Dual Schedules for the 2024-25 Season

From the summer to earlier this week, schedules trickled out from wrestling programs, signifying the start of another season is right around the corner. As schedules are released, I scramble to look at each and see what non-conference opponents a school has added for the year, which tournaments they’re heading to, and if any great individual matchups are looming. If I see most if not all of those items, I think “Great schedule.” 

You can tell a lot about a team’s schedule for the upcoming season. Some coaches know they potentially have a great team on their hands and may go out of their way to test them against the best teams or tournaments they may not normally attend. If they have a veteran team that has an injury history, maybe they’ll pull back on some of the unnecessary extra events. Some coaches like tournaments and testing their guys - they may have a handful of opens and tournaments on the schedule, while others might just have one tournament before the preseason. 

As fans, we want to see the top teams clash. We want to see the best possible individual matchups. Seeing a schedule loaded with top teams and enticing individual bouts is fun. 

Along those lines, which schools have gone out of their way to create a loaded schedule with plenty of great duals? 

That’s what we’ve determined today. 

Below are the 20 DI schools with the highest 2023-24 winning percentages for opponents on their 2024-25 schedule. The winning percentage only counts results against DI teams and does not take into account the winning percentages of non-DI teams on their current schedule. 

Also, there was no weight placed on a team's wins and losses. Occasionally, there were teams from smaller conferences that had a very strong dual record that may look better, on paper, than a Big Ten school. That’s just something we’ll have to live with here. Generally, it ends up balancing out. 

Teams also use tournaments to test themselves, so in some cases, those events may present more difficulty than their dual opponents do. 

For the fans of teams outside of the Big Ten. We realize the built-in Big Ten schedule tends to give everyone a bit of a boost, so their schools end up rating higher during this exercise.

The number next to each school is last year’s winning percentage, against DI opponents, combined for their upcoming dual opponents. 

 

1. Iowa (.653)

Ranked Conference Duals: #1 Penn State, #3 Nebraska, #6 Ohio State, #9 Minnesota, #13 Illinois, #26 Northwestern, #27 Maryland

Ranked Non-Conference Duals: #4 Oklahoma State, #7 Iowa State, #15 Stanford, #24 Oregon State, #28 Army West Point

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