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We started the week off with a bang thanks to the Cornell athletic department and head coach Mike Grey. Cornell released their schedule for the 2025-26 campaign earlier today and it’s a good one. Lots of marquee events for a program that typically participates in them. Last week, we started our schedule breakdown with a look at the Little Rock slate for the 2025-26 season. Now, we’ll head northeast to the kings of the Ivy League, Cornell. We’ll start with the actual schedule itself. Rather than reposting it in order, we’ve broken it into three parts. The non-conference duals, conference duals, and special events. Non-Conference January 10th - Lehigh (away) January 10th - Bucknell (away) January 16th - Army West Point (home) January 31st - Arizona State (home) February 14th - Binghamton (home) February 20th - NC State (away) February 22nd - Duke (away) Conference January 25th - Brown (home) January 25th - Harvard (home) January 31st - Columbia (home) February 7th - Princeton (away) February 8th - Penn (away) March 8th - Ivy League Championships (no location given) Special Events November 2nd - Clarion Open (Clarion, Pennsylvania) November 15/16th - National Duals Invitational (Tulsa, Oklahoma) November 23rd - Big Red Invitational (Home) December 5/6th - Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Las Vegas, Nevada) December 21st - Journeymen Collegiate Duals: Illinois, Little Rock (Nashville, Tennessee) January 3/4th - Southern Scuffle: Chattanooga, Tennessee Number of top 20 teams from the 2025 NCAA Championships: (6) #8 NC State, #10 Illinois, #15 Lehigh, #16 Penn, #17 Little Rock, #18(t) Arizona State Cornell always puts together a challenging schedule and this year is no exception. It’s interesting that they will have no standalone, traditional dual meets until January 10th. Of course, one of their first events will be the National Duals Invitational and they’ll wrestle a handful of duals in Tulsa. About a month later, they’ll travel to Nashville for the Collegiate Duals. Another characteristic that stands out in this schedule is that they only have one dual meet against a Big Ten foe (Illinois at the Collegiate Duals). I’m not sure whether this was done intentionally by Cornell or perhaps the Big Ten schools were not necessarily keen on facing a non-conference opponent of Cornell’s caliber. Either way, Cornell should get their share of Big Ten competition at the National Duals Invitational or the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Plenty are slated to be at both events. I’m interested to see Cornell’s representation at the Southern Scuffle. In the early years of the event, they were a mainstay. When the tournament started to fade Cornell did not attend. With a front half of the schedule loaded with high-caliber national events, this might be an opportunity for their non-starters to compete. Or it could be a sign that the Scuffle is back! Looking at the non-conference dual schedule, there’s plenty to like here. Lehigh will likely start the year as a top-ten team. This dual is always fun and intense, but it could have an added element with Lehigh potentially coming in as the favorite. The Army West Point dual will pit former teammates against each other as Big Red alum Troy Nickerson will be in his first year leading the Army squad. Of late, NC State has been a regular on the Big Red school. They’ll go back down to Raleigh, in a hostile environment, to face a team that boasts a returning national champion and three other All-Americans. Turning our attention to the Ivy League, Cornell should come into the year as the favorites - a role they’ve grown accustomed to, however, Penn and Princeton could field dangerous squads. Cornell’s dual against both will come on the same weekend and on the road. Notable Potential Matches for Cornell stars Greg Diakomihalis (125) December 21st: Spencer Moore (Illinois) January 10th: Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh) January 16th: Charlie Farmer (Army West Point) February 7th: Marc-Anthony McGowan (Princeton) February 8th: Max Gallagher (Penn) February 14th: Carson Wagner (Binghamton) February 20th: Vince Robinson (NC State) Meyer Shapiro (157) December 21st: Michael Gioffre/Kannon Webster (Illinois) December 21st: Matt Bianchi (Little Rock) January 10th: Logan Rozynski (Lehigh) January 31st: Kaleb Larkin (Arizona State) January 31st: Richard Fedalen (Columbia) February 8th: Jude Swisher (Penn) February 20th: Jackson Arrington (NC State) Simon Ruiz (174) December 21st: Chris Moore (Illinois) January 10th: Rylan Rogers (Lehigh) January 10th: Myles Takats (Bucknell) January 31st: Nick Fine (Columbia) February 20th: Matthew Singleton (NC State) You could pencil in about five more tough matches per wrestler once you take into account that Cornell is going to the National Duals Invitational and the CKLV; plus, whatever the Clarion Open, Big Red Invitational, and Southern Scuffle brings. Maybe that number could be six-eight more difficult matches. Hopefully, Shapiro will be able to wrestle in Vegas this year. His bracket was incredible in 2023 and could be excellent in 2025. Antrell Taylor (Nebraska), Daniel Cardenas (Stanford), Vince Zerban (Iowa State), Ty Watters (West Virginia), Arrington, and Brandon Cannon (Ohio State) are all top ten caliber opponents who might be in the field. Each of Cornell’s big guns will get tested during their dual with NC State. In addition to the wrestlers mentioned above, the Wolfpack also feature All-Americans Ryan Jack (141) and Isaac Trumble (285). This could be one of the better duals of the year nationally.