Methodology & sources

Short version: official beats secondary, sourced beats unsourced, empty beats guessed.

What's included

Every institution sponsoring NCAA Division II or III varsity men's wrestling in the current NCAA championship alignment, plus current sponsors in provisional or reclassifying status (flagged) and announced future programs (flagged, not counted). Discontinued programs are kept as stubs so links don't rot. Currently 207 programs (75 D2, 132 D3). NAIA, NJCAA, NCWA/club and D1 programs are not listed.

Source hierarchy

1. Official — the institution's athletics/admissions pages, conference offices, the NCAA.
2. Federal — College Scorecard / IPEDS for enrollment, admission rate, net price, completion.
3. Secondary — labeled as such (e.g., US News, d3wrestle, WrestleStat, press) and replaced when an official/federal figure exists.

Rules we hold ourselves to

• Every data page shows a verified on date and links to its sources.
• No coach email or phone is ever inferred or constructed — only contacts literally printed on an official staff page appear.
• Assessments (e.g., "strong", "limited") are labeled opinions kept separate from facts; there are no numeric rankings.
• Paid status never affects inclusion, ordering, or the facts shown.
• Where an official figure isn't published, the field is empty rather than filled with a guess.

Who is listed — the curation standard

• Listed: every institution sponsoring NCAA Division II or III varsity men's wrestling in the current NCAA alignment, plus current sponsors in provisional/reclassifying status (flagged) and announced future programs (flagged, excluded from counts until active).
• Kept as stubs: discontinued or merged programs — no browse listing, page stays so links don't rot and families don't chase dead programs.
• Under review: a program missing any required fact (official athletics URL, division, state, conferences, region, status, or a verification date within 12 months) is hidden from browse and its page says so.
• Not listed: NAIA, NJCAA, NCWA/club programs; Division I; women's programs (shown only as a flag on the men's page for now).

Full standard, field rules and audit log: docs/CURATION.md. Last audit 2026-08-16.

How it's maintained

Data lives as versioned CSV/JSON files. Automated agents re-fetch official pages on a schedule (monthly in hiring/roster season, quarterly otherwise), propose changes with sources, and a human reviews every change before it's published — see what changed; 3170 changes have been reviewed and merged so far.

Corrections and claims

Anyone can send a correction; every report becomes a tracked issue, we check the official source, reply within 7 days, and accepted fixes are dated on /changes and on the program page. Coaches and staff can claim their program page: after verification against the official staff page they get a verified badge, direct correction rights and free Recruit Pass access — never editorial control over facts, sources or assessments. Paid status never affects what a page says.

Attribution and independence

• Independent. WrestlingColleges.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the NCAA, any conference, or any institution. "NCAA", "Division II", "Division III" and school and conference names identify the programs they refer to; trademarks belong to their owners.
• Institutional data comes from each school's own athletics and admissions pages and is credited on every program page with the URL and the date we read it.
• Federal data (enrollment, admission rate, net price, completion) comes from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard / IPEDS, public domain, most recent release at the verified date.
• Results come from NCAA and conference championship brackets and the schools' own releases; secondary outlets are named where used.
• Assessments ("crowded", "strong", "limited") are our own labelled opinions, derived from the sourced facts shown next to them.
• Coach contact details are reproduced only as printed on official staff pages, for families contacting programs — see Terms and Privacy. Coaches can have a listing corrected or removed via the form above.