It’s a historic moment at Big Tens! The Penn State recorded their ninth victory at the tournament and they did so in style. They finished with 181.5 points, which was the most in the tournament’s history, and broke the previous record of 170.5 set by them last year.

Then, five of their players also won the individual title, which also tied the record for the most individual wins. Owing to the overwhelming margin of their victory, the Penn State players couldn’t keep calm and had an interesting reaction to their domination on the mat.

After the Nittany Lions clinched the Big Ten Wrestling Championship, an interviewer stopped by as they were soaking in the celebrations. He asked the Penn State star, Luke Lilledahl, “In one word, what does it feel like to be a Big Ten Champion?” Lilledahl paused for a second and exclaimed, “Tough!” Going by their domination, it was a rather bizarre reaction from him, and the entire team erupted in laughs and claps as they agreed with his response.

Further, the Penn State stars Luke Lilledahl (125), Tyler Kasak (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174), and Carter Starocci (184) shined on the big day to claim individual titles. A good sweep! All 10 wrestlers punched their tickets to the 2025 NCAA Championships, with Carter Starocci leading the charge and sending a fierce warning as he chases another title.

Ahead of the most important event of the year, Starocci remarked, “I mean, when it gets deep, you can look into your opponent’s eyes, and you can kind of feel them soften up a little bit. And you’re just kind of seeing how far you’re willing to go.” Thus, Starocci has already started playing mind games and looks like the favorite to win the NCAA title later this month. While it was all glory for Penn State on the mat, there has been a major concern behind the scenes.

Penn State Wrestling’s finances don’t look good

Even as the players are giving their all on the mat and creating history, the Penn State Wrestling Program is facing a huge loss, as far as the financial aspect of the game is concerned. Although it is the University with the highest revenue for this program, Penn State’s expenses have also remained sky-high. Thus, the program has been a loss-making entity overall.

In FY 2024, the Penn State Wrestling Program earned a revenue of a little over $2 million. This included earnings from ticket sales, contributions, sports camps, etc. On the other hand, their expenses exceeded $4 million, almost double their income. Some of the major expenses included the salary of coaches and support staff, travel, and athletic student aid among others. Thus, as a whole, the University’s Wrestling Program made a loss of $2 Million for FY 24.

While the Penn State Wrestling Program may be one of the United States’ most successful programs in terms of achievements, it needs to keep a check on its finances to avoid such big losses in the future. Nonetheless, with the NCAA Championships coming up in a few days, the team would look to quickly bring the focus back onto the mat after their dominating Big Ten Championship win.