Penn State Wrestling Might Be the Greatest Dynasty in Sports, AD Pat Kraft Says
Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson has built one of college sports’ great dynasties, one overwhelmingly favored to win its 12th NCAA team title in 14 seasons after blowing through another regular-season campaign. Which is why Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft wants Penn State wrestling fans to appreciate this run and who’s guiding it.
“I think we all have to understand what we are watching,” Kraft said during his first media availability of 2025. “It is the greatest — it’s not even a dynasty. It’s better than what anyone has done in college sports and maybe in all sports, because the Big Ten is loaded. And we’re going to do that as long as we can. …. He’s just one of those people who thinks at a different level in all the right ways.”
“He” is Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson, who in his 16th season with the Nittany Lions might have his best team yet. Penn State completed a 15-0 regular season with a 50-3 win over American University last week that underscored the team’s dominance. Penn State won nine bouts, five by pin and four by technicall fall, to claim its 71st consecutive dual-match victory, the second-longest win streak men’s Division I wrestling history.
Penn State has gone undefeated in five consecutive seasons and nine of the last 10. In that decade, Penn State has compiled a dual-match record of 136-2. This season, no team won more than three individual bouts in any given match against Penn State. The Nittany Lions next will chase third straight Big Ten Tournament title (March 8-9 at Northwestern) before pursuing their fourth consecutive team title at the NCAA Championship in Philadelphia two weeks later. Asked what separates Sanderson from the rest of college wrestling, Kraft didn’t know where to start or how to stop.
“I get asked that by everybody, and I get asked that by not just alums, but by elite football coaches, basketball coaches,” Kraft said. “He is one of one. He’s a unicorn, we would say in our world. But it’s [not just] Cael. It’s [head assistant coach] Casey [Cunningham], it’s [associate head coach] Cody [Sanderson], it’s that entire organization and how they run it.
“… He recruits amazing young men who understand and are fully committed to being the best, and Cael does it in a way that is so special and unique. You think you come into a wrestling program, and it’s like fire and brimstone. No, [it’s] take care of your person first, take care of who you are, and bring in people who understand that and who love to wrestle. And then we’re just gonna get better and better and better along way. And it so sounds simple, but the culture that he builds in that building, that Casey builds, and Cody and that unit builds, there’s nothing like it.”
Last year Penn State produced arguably the greatest team performance ever at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, scoring a record 172.5 points, winning by a record margin of 100 points and crowning four individual champs and eight All-Americans. With eight wrestlers ranked either first or second at their weight classes, according to InterMat, Penn State could top that performance this year — and without asking for enormous resources to do so, Kraft said.
“This is no joke. If Cael walked in there and wanted $100 million, ‘I will find you $100 million, Cael,” Kraft said. “But the reality is, it’s opposite to that: ‘I’m good, Pat.’ It’s whatever we need to do to get better, but he ‘s never asking for anything more than what he believes it takes to just win.”
Kraft said that he asks Penn State’s other coaches to visit with Sanderson and his staff to learn best practices. Penn State football coach James Franklin is a regular at Nittany Lions wrestling matches and has spent time with Sanderson to learn his secrets. Which Kraft said aren’t really secrets.
“You think it’s something different than what it is, but it really isn’t,” Kraft said. “Let’s just get to the core: amazing people, great fathers, great leaders, and they get that culture to buy in and be exactly who they emulate. And they don’t complain about a thing.”
