On January 17, 2025, women's wrestling became the NCAA's 91st championship sport. The first NCAA Women's Wrestling Championship is scheduled for March 2026. Five years ago, most families had never heard of women's college wrestling. Today, over 150 colleges and universities sponsor the sport, programs are being added every year, and coaches are actively recruiting athletes for rosters they're still building.
This creates an unusual recruiting landscape. In established sports, the pathways are well-worn and the competition for roster spots is intense. In women's wrestling, many programs are new, scholarship pools are growing, and coaches are looking for athletes who might not even know this option exists. For families searching for colleges with women's wrestling — particularly first-generation college families navigating recruiting for the first time — this is a genuine opportunity, but only if you understand how the landscape actually works.
The growth of women's wrestling at the college level
The trajectory is remarkable. Women's wrestling was added to the NCAA's Emerging Sports for Women program in 2020. It surpassed the sponsorship minimum within three years. By 2025, it earned full championship status — making it only the sixth sport to complete that journey, joining rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling, and beach volleyball.
The numbers tell the story: approximately 112 NCAA institutions now sponsor women's wrestling, alongside 42 NAIA programs and 14 NJCAA programs. That's roughly 150 colleges across all governing bodies, with over 1,200 women competing collegiately. New programs are being announced regularly — schools are adding women's wrestling not just to meet Title IX requirements but because participation is surging at the high school level and the talent pipeline is expanding faster than roster spots.
This growth rate matters for recruiting. A sport that's adding programs annually creates opportunities that don't exist in mature sports. Coaches building new teams need to fill entire rosters, not just replace graduating seniors. An athlete who would face intense competition for a roster spot in soccer or volleyball may find a program in women's wrestling that's genuinely eager to recruit her.
Which schools have women's wrestling programs
Women's wrestling spans all three NCAA divisions, the NAIA, and the NJCAA. The landscape is distributed differently than most established sports.
NCAA Division I programs include schools like Presbyterian College, King University, Sacred Heart, and Lindenwood — many of which were early adopters. The D1 roster is growing as more schools elevate their programs. These programs compete for the athletes with the strongest national rankings and tournament results.
NCAA Division II and III programs make up a significant portion of the total — roughly 68 of the 112 NCAA programs. Schools like Upper Iowa (D2), West Liberty (D2), Manchester University (D3), and McDaniel College (D3) are recent additions. D3 programs in particular are expanding rapidly because the barrier to entry (no scholarship commitment required) makes it easier for schools to launch new programs.
NAIA programs deserve serious attention. The NAIA has sponsored women's wrestling as a championship sport since 2023 — two years before the NCAA. With 42 programs, the NAIA offers a mature competitive environment and a scholarship model with unique advantages (more on this below). Three members of the most recent U.S. Senior Women's Freestyle World Team competed at NAIA institutions. The talent level is not a step down.
For the most current list of programs, the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Coalition maintains a searchable directory. The landscape changes frequently enough that checking current program counts before building a target list is worth the effort.
Scholarship availability for women's wrestling
Women's wrestling is an equivalency sport at every level that offers athletic scholarships. Coaches split a pool of scholarship money across the roster as partial awards. Full rides are essentially nonexistent.
| Level | Scholarships available | What this means in practice |
|---|
| NCAA D1 | ~6 equivalencies | Split across rosters of up to 30. Most athletes receive partial awards covering 15–30% of costs. |
| NCAA D2 | ~6–6.5 equivalencies | Similar to D1 in scale. D2 schools frequently stack athletic aid with academic merit scholarships. |
| NCAA D3 | 0 | No athletic scholarships. Merit and need-based institutional aid only. Some D3 aid packages exceed D1/D2 athletic awards in total value. |
| NAIA | Up to 10 equivalencies | More scholarship money per program than NCAA. Athletes with a 4.0 GPA don't count against the scholarship limit. |
The NAIA scholarship structure deserves a closer look. With up to 10 equivalencies per program — compared to roughly 6 at NCAA D1 and D2 — NAIA coaches have more money to distribute. And the 4.0 GPA rule is a genuine differentiator: if your athlete has a 4.0, her scholarship doesn't count against the team's 10-scholarship cap, which frees up money for other athletes and makes coaches more willing to offer stronger awards to high-academic performers.
The practical takeaway: do not assume that the "best" scholarship offers come from the highest division level. A D2 school stacking athletic and academic aid, or an NAIA program leveraging the GPA exemption, may produce a net cost lower than what a D1 program can offer. Run the numbers. Our guide to college athletic scholarships explains the equivalency model in detail.
How to get recruited for women's college wrestling
The recruiting timeline for women's wrestling is less rigid than established sports, partly because the sport is still maturing and partly because coaches are building programs that need athletes now.
Athletes can contact coaches at any time. There are no restrictions on when an athlete can send an email, fill out a recruiting questionnaire, or reach out to a coaching staff. The NCAA contact rules that govern when coaches can initiate communication still apply (generally, coaches can begin contact June 15 after an athlete's sophomore year), but in a growing sport where coaches are actively roster-building, proactive outreach from the athlete is especially effective.
What to include in your first contact: graduation year, weight class (current and projected), competitive results (state placement, national tournament experience, Fargo results, USA Wrestling rankings), training background (club, school program, regional training center), GPA and test scores, and a link to match film if available. For the step-by-step guide to writing that first email, see how to email a college coach.
The folkstyle-to-freestyle transition matters. Most high school girls' wrestling programs use folkstyle rules. College women's wrestling uses freestyle — the same style used in Olympic competition. The scoring is different, the strategy is different, and coaches want to know whether your athlete has freestyle experience. Athletes who train freestyle through USA Wrestling clubs or regional training centers alongside their high school folkstyle programs have a meaningful advantage in recruiting.
Weight class awareness. High school girls' wrestling uses 14 weight classes. College uses 10: 103, 110, 117, 124, 131, 138, 145, 160, 180, and 207 pounds. Your athlete's high school weight class may not map directly to a college weight class, and coaches recruit by weight class based on roster needs. Knowing which college weight class your athlete projects into — and which programs have openings at that weight — is a practical recruiting advantage.
Where coaches find athletes: USA Wrestling national tournaments (especially Fargo and the Women's Nationals), state championship results, FloWrestling rankings, and direct outreach from athletes and their coaches. Club and regional training center coaches often have relationships with college coaches and can facilitate introductions.
What coaches look for in women's wrestling recruits
Because the sport is growing and the talent pipeline is still developing, women's wrestling coaches evaluate recruits somewhat differently than coaches in established sports.
Competitive results matter, but they're not the only filter. National tournament placement and state championship results are the strongest credentials. But coaches at newer programs — especially D2, D3, and NAIA schools building their first or second recruiting classes — are also looking for athletes with strong athletic backgrounds who may be relatively new to wrestling. A multi-sport athlete with a wrestling foundation and clear physical tools can be recruitable even without a deep tournament résumé.
Coaches evaluate four areas: athletic performance, academic standing, work ethic and coachability, and how the athlete fits the program's culture. One college coach described it as needing to be strong in at least three of those four categories. Academic performance carries real weight — particularly at NAIA programs where a 4.0 GPA directly impacts the team's scholarship flexibility.
Film is increasingly important. As the sport grows, coaches can't attend every tournament. Match film — particularly from competitive bouts at state or national-level events — gives coaches a way to evaluate technique, decision-making, and competitive temperament remotely. Even short clips of competitive matches are useful. Film hosted on YouTube with a clean link in your outreach email removes friction from the evaluation process.
The bottom line
Women's wrestling at the college level is in a rare position: a sport with genuine momentum, expanding scholarship money, and coaches who need athletes. The families who benefit most are the ones who recognize that this landscape rewards initiative. Programs are new, rosters are being built, and an athlete who reaches out proactively — with competitive results, a clear academic profile, and film a coach can evaluate — has a realistic shot at opportunities that didn't exist five years ago.
The recruiting fundamentals still apply. Understanding how college recruiting works gives you the framework. The college athletic scholarships guide explains the equivalency model that governs wrestling scholarships at every level. And when your athlete is ready to reach out to programs, how to email a college coach covers the structure and strategy for that first contact. The sport is new enough that the playbook is still being written — which means the families who start the process with good information have an outsized advantage.