InterMat

Photo: Tony Rotundo Earl Smith • 1 hour ago North Carolina head coach Rob Koll joins us to talk about his team for the 2026-27 season. The Tar Heels start the year ranked 12th in InterMat's national dual rankings. Coach Koll talks about some of the competition in the room, key parts of the schedule, the much-improved ACC, his coaching tree and much more!

Our preseason national rankings have been released! These are still a bit rough, as most schools are still trying to sort out their lineups. This year they have an added wrinkle - no redshirts! That means that lineups might be more in flux during the preseason and throughout a portion of the regular season. With that being said, we plan on at least one revision of the preseason rankings before action gets underway in November.

With just over two months until the college regular season starts, we’ll turn most of our focus to the collegiate wrestling world. There will be lots of previews and content to get fans ready for the upcoming 2026-27 season. Today, we’ll focus on a South Dakota State team that will enjoy a change of scenery during the season. This will be the first year that the Jackrabbits will compete in the Pac-12 Conference.

RAF 12 marked the one-year anniversary of Real American Freestyle and during that time the organization has produced 13 shows. Our tradition during this time has been to make the next matches for wrestlers after each card. That will carry on with the participants for RAF 12. Of course, some have already been booked for matches on future cards. If that’s the case, I’ll stick with those.

We’re only a day away from RAF 12 - Real American Freestyle’s anniversary show. The organization has produced live events for a calendar year now. Tomorrow, we’ll have a preview of the action, but for now, let’s look back at some of the “bests” from a very productive and promising year worth of Real American Freestyle. Best Wrestler: Kyle Snyder There are quite a few candidates that could take this hypothetical award. Kyle Dake comes to mind and has a legit argument here, as well.

Monday at the U20 World Championships saw the first set of medals awarded and the American squad grabbed one in Greco-Roman competition. Aidan Squier posted three wins on the day to collect a bronze medal. He advanced to the medal round after a tech and a 6-4 victory in the morning’s repechage rounds. In the bronze medal bout, facing Romania’s Gabriel Stan, Squier found himself in a 6-0 hole after the opening stanza.

Let's get right to it Can you provide any related context on why New York's biggest hitters would not be in attendance at Fargo this year? No Cam Howard, Gavin Mangano, Will Soto, Finnegan O'Brien, Matt Peterson, Spencer Lee, Jace Rooney, Dunia Sibomana, Griffin LaPlante, Chris Noto. Devin Downes, Chris Belmonte, Matt McDermott, Ethan Andreula, Kymah Gummow, Dominic Darch, and the list goes on. Is this a NY-USAW admin issue?

Real American Freestyle’s (RAF) first venture out of the United States proved to be a successful one on Saturday with the organization’s RAF Georgia card from Tbilisi, Georgia. The card had to be one of, if not the most, star-studden standalone events in modern wrestling history as 8 Olympic gold medalists took part in the competition. Two matches featured Olympic champions squaring off.

It’s a Michigan homecoming! The Wolverines announced on Wednesday that two-time NCAA champion Kellen  Russell will return to Ann Arbor as an assistant coach. Russell previously spent seven years on the Michigan coaching staff before leaving for Cornell in 2021. While at Cornell, Russell assisted on a pair of teams that won trophies at the NCAA Tournament (3rd/2023 and 2nd/2024). The Big Red also had two wrestlers combine for four NCAA titles with Russell on staff.

Recruiting class rankings are always unique in their own sort of way. This year, the number one spot seemed to be locked up early; however, classes #2-#4 all could probably make a case for the second spot. After that, it gets very interesting. Then, as you made your way down to the 25 spot, there were a handful of teams that could’ve made a case for their inclusion. Some of it came down to how you value quantity over quality. As you peruse the rankings, you’ll see plenty of classes that had both.