In STACK’s college wrestling rankings, we take you beyond wins and losses to reveal what truly makes a wrestling program great. To come up with our list of the top 10 college wrestling programs, we consider a variety of factors—not just a team’s record, but also academic rankings from U.S. News & World Report and Academic Progress Rates. The result is a list of schools we’d recommend to any wrestler seeking an elite athletic program and a strong education. Learn more about how we arrived at our rankings through the Elite 50 guide, and browse through STACK’s rankings for 20 other sports at the bottom of this page.
STACK’s Top 10 College Wrestling Programs

College	Score	’12 U.S. News Rank	APR [Out of 1,000]	National Ranking ’11/’10/’09	STACK Factor
1. Cornell	100	15	967	2/2/5	24
2. Wisconsin	92.51	42	956	10/4/9	72
3. Stanford	91.40	5	972	11/28/NR	192
4. Iowa	90.68	71	972	3/1/1	24
5. Virginia	89.07	25	978	23/15/34	132
6. Minnesota	88.63	68	961	7/7/14	84
7. Ohio State	87.91	55	953	29/8/2	132
8. Penn State	83.07	45	928	1/9/17	48
9. Lehigh	80.86	38	985	8/17/28	12
10. Oklahoma	80.78	101	976	16/5/31	120

Inside the Rankings: Minnesota Wrestling
This Big Ten powerhouse has churned out several individual NCAA champions en route to an impressive 12 conference championships, five in the past decade, and three NCAA Tournament titles—in 2001, 2002 and 2007.
Throughout their 100-year history, Minnesota has produced nine wrestlers who have gone on to represent the United States in international competition, notably Cole Konrad, who won gold at the 2005 Pan American Championships.
Other standouts, such as Brock Lesnar, an NCAA individual champion in 2000, have applied their wrestling talents to other athletic pursuits. Lesnar, a 6’3” 265-pound juggernaut, made the leap to MMA and took home the UFC heavyweight title in 2008.
No surprise that the Golden Gophers continue to move up in the STACK Elite 50 rankings. Minnesota is an obvious top choice for wrestlers seeking a solid program that can propel them onto the international stage after graduation.
Check out the rest of STACK’s college rankings:

Football	Softball	Men’s Swimming	Men’s Cross Country
Volleyball	Women’s Track	Women’s Swimming	Men’s Golf
Men’s Basketball	Men’s Track	Hockey	Women’s Golf
Women’s Basketball	Men’s Soccer	Lacrosse	Men’s Tennis
Baseball	Women’s Soccer	Women’s Cross Country	Women’s Tennis