Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion College NAIA Results on Trackwrestling Baker and Bethany

And it will be at least 38 teams next season when Benedictine has their team in place.

Congrats to Aspen Kmiec of Midland University (Shawnee Heights HS)for going 3-2 at this National Tourney. Aspen is a true freshman and his losses came to the 3rd and 5th place finishers. Nice showing by this young man on the big stage!

There were several NAIA teams in transition to NCAA DII this year too. Lindenwood, Notre Dame, McKendree...

I don't think any of those schools were counted towards the total of 37 teams. Lindewood, McKendree, and Notre Dame College are competing in the NCWA while they are in transition, similar to what Newman did when they moved up to DII.

List of NCWA Teams

Yeah, I was just pointing out there were more last year but they are in transition now. NAIA and DII Wrestling has been growing in recent years. Yes, UNO did drop but several other teams have added in the last couple or transitioned from NAIA. There was a point in time in the not so distant past that NAIA was down to 18 teams! Wrestling isn't dying, but I am a believer that we do need to do a better job in educating and making our sport more accessible to other sports fans.

I agree that the sport is growing. In Kansas we've added quite a few programs in the past 10 years. Hopefully we can continue this momentum with a DI program, but that is going to take some work.