What Division I Wrestling Would Look like Today Had No Teams Dropped

 As of today 10-17-2020,  NCAA Division I wrestling if COVID-19 doesn't prevent it from taking place, will have 79 teams in the 2020-2021 season.  Only 79 teams & two of them Stanford & Fresno State might not be around come the 2021-2022 season. 

What would NCAA Division I wrestling look like today if every team that ever discontinued wrestling had never dropped their wrestling program?  How many teams would NCAA Division I wrestling have? 

Lets Find out 

ARIZONA today has Arizona State, yet over the years Arizona, Northern Arizona & Grand Canyon have all dropped teams.  That's 4. 

ARKANSAS today has Little Rock, at one time Arkansas State had a team.  That's 2. 

ALASKA has 0 & would have 0 

ALABAMA doesn't have any DI teams today in wrestling, but at one time they had Alabama & Auburn & today Troy State is also DI.  That's 3. 

CALIFORNIA, this is where things get fun.  In a short amount of time we could be down to only Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield & California Baptist.  You want to know who all dropped?  Fresno State, Stanford, Santa Clara, U of Pacific, UC Riverside, San Diego State, San Jose State, Cal, UCLA, USC, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Fullerton, UC Davis, Long Beach State, Cal State Sacramento, Cal State Northridge.   That's 21 teams. Large enough to where if they still all had wrestling, California could have their own Regional qualifier. 

CONNECTICUT today has Sacred Heart.  Has lost Connecticut, Central Connecticut State & Yale in DI.  That's 4. 

COLORADO is Air Force and Northern Colorado today.  Would also be Denver, Colorado & Colorado State for 5. 

DELAWARE is 0, but would be Delaware and Delaware State for 2. 

FLORIDA may surprise you.  It is 0 today, but believe it or not, had no teams ever dropped their would be 8 or 9 DI teams today.  Florida, Central Florida, Florida International, Florida A&M, Miami, Stetson, South Florida and North Florida.  I'm not 100% positive if the 1962-1963 through 1965-1966 Florida State team you find in various tournaments was officially varsity or not.  

GEORGIA is 0, but would be 4.  Kennesaw State, Georgia, Georgia State & Georgia Tech all had teams. 

IDAHO is 0 as well, but would be 3.   Idaho, Idaho State & Boise State all had teams. 

ILLINOIS may shock you a bit.  Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Illinois, Northern Illinois & Northwestern still have teams today.  Illinois State, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Bradley, Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Chicago State & U of I Chicago all used to have teams too.  That would make for a total of 11. 

INDIANA has Indiana and Purdue, would have also Indiana State, Notre Dame & Ball State for a total of 5. 

IOWA has three with Iowa State, Iowa, & Northern Iowa.  Add in Drake for what would be 4. 

KANSAS has nothing today but would have Kansas, Kansas State & Wichita State for 3. 

KENTUCKY has Bellarmine & would also have Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky for 3. 

LOUISIANA believe it or not would have 4.  I kid you not.  Louisiana State, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette & Tulane all had teams at one time. 

MAINE has 0 and would have 1 with Maine. 

MARYLAND has Maryland and Navy.  Would have Towson, Coppin State, Morgan State & Maryland Eastern Shore if none had dropped for 6. 

MASSACHUSETTS has HARVARD.  Would also have Massachusetts, Boston, Boston College & Massachusetts-Lowell for 5

MICHIGAN has Central Michigan, Michigan & Michigan State.  Would add Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan & Oakland for 6. 

MINNESOTA has changed a bit.  Had Minnesota & still has Minnesota

MISSISSIPPI also hasn't changed.  Not a single collegiate program in Mississippi DI or other wise has ever had wrestling. 

MISSOURI  has Missouri.  Would also have Missouri State, St Louis & Southeast Missouri State 

MONTANA has zero but would have two with Montana and Montana State 

NEBRASKA has one with Nebraska & would have two with Nebraska-Omaha 

NEVADA would have two with Nevada-Reno & UNLV 

NEW HAMPSHIRE would also have two with New Hampshire and Dartmouth 

NEW JERSEY is at three with Princeton, Rider & Rutgers.  Would be at 6 with Seton Hall, Farleigh Dickinson & Monmouth 

NEW MEXICO would be at 2 with New Mexico and New Mexico State 

NEW YORK is also a surprising state.  Binghamton, Buffalo, Columbia, Cornell, Hofstra, Long Island & Army give the state 7 but Canisius, Colgate, Fordham, Marist, Stony Brook, Syracuse & Wagner would give the state a total of 14. 

NORTH CAROLINA has Appalachian State, Campbell, Davidson, Duke, Gardner Webb, North Carolina & North Carolina State.  Add in East Carolina, Elon, North Carolina A&T, UNC-Greensboro & Wake Forest for a total of 12. 

NORTH DAKOTA has NORTH DAKOTA STATE & would have 2 with North Dakota. 

OHIO is one that gets me.  Ohio, Ohio State, Cleveland State & Kent State make for 4 teams.  Would be 11 if you add in Toledo, Akron, Bowling Green, Miami, Cincinnati, Dayton and Youngstown State. 

OKLAHOMA is Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, would add in Tulsa for 3. 

OREGON is Oregon State today. Would also be Oregon & Portland State for 3. 

PENNSYLVANIA believe it or not could be 16 DI teams today.  As of now it is 11 with Bloomsburg, Bucknell, Clarion, Drexel, Edinboro, Franklin & Marshall, Lehigh, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, Penn State & Pittsburgh.   Would also include Lafayette, Saint Francis, Temple, Villanova & Duquesne had they never dropped.  

RHODE ISLAND is Brown.  Would also be U of Rhode Island for 2. 

SOUTH CAROLINA has Presbyterian and Citadel.  Would also have Furman, Clemson and South Carolina State for 5. 

SOUTH DAKOTA has South Dakota State & would also have South Dakota for 2. 

TENNESSEE has Chattanooga but would also have Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee, UT-Martin, Vanderbilt & Memphis State.  (George McIntyre told me Tenn Tech had a program, but I've found absolutely nothing on it.)  6 

TEXAS believe it or not would have three.  Texas, Texas A&M & Texas El Paso.   There's slight chance that Texas Christian may have had a varsity program at one time too.  Southern Methodist did state once that if other southern schools would commit to adding wrestling, they would too.  It never happened though. 

UTAH has Utah Valley.  Would also have Utah, Utah State, Brigham Young, Weber State & Southern Utah.  6 

VIRGINIA has George Mason, Virginia, VMI & Virginia Tech.  Would also have William & Mary, Norfolk State, Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison, Liberty, Old Dominion, Hampton & Richmond.  12 

WASHINGTON has 0 now, but would have 4.  Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Washington & Washington State 

WEST VIRGINIA has West Virginia & would also have Marshall for 2. 

WISCONSIN has Wisconsin & would also have Milwaukee & Marquette for 3. 

WYOMING has Wyoming & that's the only DI school in the state. 1 

D.C. has American & would also have George Washington, Howard & Georgetown.  4. 


So there you have it. 

79 is what we have in 2020-2021.  77 maybe what we're left with in 2021-2022. 

What we would have had no team ever dropped wrestling? 

237 is the number I came up with. 

237 

Meaning that 158 teams that are currently Division I status today had wrestling programs at one time and don't today.  More teams have dropped wrestling than currently have it at the DI status. 

What would wrestling look like with 237 DI teams?