A Winter-Spring Hybrid Season: Wrestling’s Path to Growth
How do we make wrestling sustainable and relevant?
One critical step is moving our season from being purely a winter sport to becoming a Winter-Spring hybrid.
Imagine this: we start training in December, begin competitions in January, and space our national events to land before and after the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championships.
Why Shift the Season?
First, let’s clear something up—moving the wrestling season isn’t a radical idea. We’ve debated it for decades. And honestly, I’ve never heard a single good reason not to do it—except the usual excuse:
“It’s not the way we’ve done it in the past.”
But why not? There’s no real downside.
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It moves the early part of our season away from the college football bowl games and their media dominance.
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It places our national championships in windows before and after March Madness, when media outlets aren’t consumed with basketball.
Football and basketball are kings when it comes to media attention—both in print and on-screen. And that’s bad for wrestling because media coverage is the lifeblood of any sport. Without it, we don’t attract fans, sponsors, or revenue.
Ask yourself: when was the last time Sports Illustrated ran a feature story on our NCAA wrestling championships? It’s tough to break through when every sports outlet is busy covering the 128 basketball teams fighting for the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four.
Benefits Beyond Media
Moving the season also helps our athletes.
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Academically, freshmen would have more time to adjust to college life before cutting weight and diving into competition.
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Safety-wise, we’d avoid the travel risks of icy roads in November and December, swapping them for safer trips in March and April.
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Recruiting-wise, starting competition in January gives football players—especially upper weights—a chance to join wrestling without feeling they’re already months behind.
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And let’s be honest—moms care that wrestlers get to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, without weight-cutting stress. That’s a big deal when parents are deciding between wrestling and other sports.
The National Duals: A Smarter Approach
Now let’s talk about the National Duals.
Yes, we need to bring them back—but not as a mid-season event. We tried that. It didn’t work. Coaches, particularly in the Big Ten, had every right to push back.
Think about their grind:
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A brutal regular-season schedule
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A demanding conference tournament
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The NCAA individual tournament
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And then we were asking them to squeeze in a national dual meet tournament mid-season?
That was a recipe for disaster.
A New Blueprint
Here’s a better plan—a blueprint for a Winter-Spring hybrid season:
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Practice begins in December
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Dual meet season starts in early January
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Conference and qualifying tournaments held in early February
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NCAA Individual Championships in mid-February
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Second half of dual meet season continues through March
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National Dual Meet Championship Series begins first week of April
Don’t get hung up on exact dates—the big idea is two championships in the right order and clear of competing sports juggernauts.
Why Two Championships?
Ask yourself two questions:
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Should wrestling have two national championships?
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Should those championships avoid overlapping with football bowls and March Madness?
If your answer to either is “no,” stop reading.
But if you agree on both, then the only debate left is timing and order.
Holding the National Duals after the individual tournament is the only logical option. It keeps athletes fresh for their individual goals while delivering a media-friendly, team-centric spectacle to close the season.
Imagine the marketing power:
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Wrestling would feature 10 NCAA champions and 70 All-Americans still in uniform, competing in duals for two extra months.
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Think of the matchups: current All-Americans facing national champions… or even one NCAA champion bumping up a weight to face another champion.
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This is how you create legends and heroes for young wrestlers to look up to.
Right now, our season effectively ends the moment our best wrestlers receive their All-American plaques—many of whom graduate two months later. Wrestling never gets a chance to market its biggest stars because our season dies just as interest should be peaking.
A Practical Solution
As for the National Dual Meet Championships:
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Maybe we start with the Top 8 teams and expand to 16 as interest grows and logistics improve.
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From an Athletic Director’s standpoint, it’s a win. About 90% of Division I teams would finish their season by the end of March—actually shortening the season by two weeks. Only the top teams would keep wrestling deeper into April, which would further highlight the elite programs.
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It’s a huge cost-saving measure for non-revenue programs that wouldn’t be among the Elite Eight, and cost containment is never a bad thing in college athletics.
From the media’s perspective, these changes remove the standard excuses for not covering wrestling. Writers and broadcasters won’t be busy with bowls or basketball tournaments.
Time for Change
I know all this won’t be an easy sell. Change never is. But the potential rewards far outweigh the fears.
Remember, our current spectator base is about 5% of what we need to become truly relevant.
We don’t have the other 95% yet—but maybe, just maybe, the time has come to do things differently.
