The strength of schedule for the Mountaineers cannot get much harder heading into the 2026-27 season. The Big 12 is loaded with ranked programs, a couple in the top five at the end of last season, and now the Mountaineers add the top-ranked program from a season ago. Of course, head coach Tim Flynn has many ties to the Nittany Lions, earning more than 100 wins during his time there. The program is heading in the right direction and testing itself against the nation’s best. Read more: WVU Wrestling adds Penn State to the schedule.
Penn State history
Head coach Tim Flynn sat down with Quinn Robie, one of our fabulous writers, and me for an interview and mentioned that WVU picked up Penn State on the road this season.
“The Big 12 is really, really challenging in wrestling,” Flynn said. “We’ll wrestle Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Missouri, and they’re all top-10 teams. Then we picked up Penn State, who’s the top-ranked team in the country.”
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Penn State finished the season as the top-ranked program after winning the 2026 NCAA Men’s Wrestling Championship team title. They finished 15-0, scoring a record-breaking 181.5 points under head coach Cael Sanderson. They had four individual champions, Luke Lilledahl (125 pounds), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165 pounds), Levi Haines (174 pounds), and Josh Barr (197 pounds).
“I think when you can go somewhere like State College, there aren’t many places that have that kind of atmosphere,’ Flynn said. “They’ll have a mat with 10,000 people around it, and not West Virginia fans.”
This is a test he wants for his athletes and the program. When you face the best teams in the country, on the road, in harsh environments, you see where you stand.
“I think it kind of hardens you as an athlete, as a man, to go into enemy territory,” Flynn said. “I don’t know how many times NCAA champions in the last 20 years. They’re the program to beat right now.”
They will travel to Penn State this season, and Penn State will come to Morgantown the following season. Add this to the already incredibly hard conference schedule, and you have one of the hardest schedules in the nation.
The rest of the schedule
Oklahoma State is the other marquee matchup. They were the runner-ups last season and had three individual champions. They consistently rank as the top team in the Big 12. The Mountaineers will travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to face the Cowboys this season, after they came to Morgantown last year.
“Our kids came in wanting that,” Flynn said. “It’s not like I’m giving them a punishment. I’m giving them a treat.”
They also have an anticipated match against North Carolina in Morgantown. They finished the season ranked 15th, one spot ahead of the Mountaineers. They beat WVU, 27-7, at Chapel Hill in December 2025, so this one they have circled on their calendars.
“That’s a big one because we didn’t wrestle well last year and they’re a good team,” Flynn said of North Carolina. “They’re a top 15 team. We didn’t compete well, so we really had kind of circled and highlighted a little bit.”
Of course, WVU also wrestles other Big 12 teams. Missouri and Iowa State top that list. Iowa State finished ranked fourth, while Missouri was 14th. The Big 12 also features Northern Iowa, Wyoming, and Oklahoma, all of which finished inside the top 25 last season.
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