Wrestling: #1 Penn State hosting #8 Iowa on Sunday

On Sunday Rec Hall and its new HD scoreboards will be the site of Penn State's biggest wrestling duel meet in years...or perhaps ever.

#8 Iowa comes to State College with a 72-match unbeaten streak. Penn State is ranked Number One...

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We thought we were going to have the nearly impossible task of embargoing ourselves from the score for more than two days.

The match is Sunday afternoon, but the Big Ten Network's delayed broadcast was scheduled for Tuesday night.

Fortunately, the BTN listened to the fans...

Due to strong fan response, the Big Ten Network has decided to re-schedule the debut airing of the #8 Iowa at #1 Penn State wrestling match to approximately 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday night (Jan. 30), immediately after Big Ten Icons. The match will also air at its originally scheduled time of 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

The very first bout will be critical.

Iowa's defending 125-pound National Champion Matt McDonough, who is ranked second in the country, will wrestle either #11 Brad Pataky or unranked Eric Caschera.

Pataky has been nursing a bum knee. Caschera wrestled in the last two duels (Pitt and Indiana) and lost seven team points with a regular decision and a major decision going against him.

It's hard to not see team bonus points for Iowa, but can Penn State limit the damage?

For those of you new to wrestling, the team points are as follows...

• 3: Win by decision of seven points or fewer
• 4: Major Decision, winning by 8 to 14 points
• 4: Technical Fall, winning by 15 or more, but no back points
• 5: Technical Fall, winning by 15 or more with back points
• 6: Win by Fall (i.e., a pin)

Based on the latest InterMat Rankings, Iowa will be favored at 125, 165, and 197. Penn State is favored at the other seven weights.

Despite this seemingly heavy advantage for the Nittany Lions, Iowa can win by pulling an upset somewhere (maybe at 133 with #10 Tony Ramos against #5 Andrew Long), and piling up bonus points at the three weights in which they are favored.

Penn State's best chances for bonus points appear to be the following matches...

• 141: #5 Andrew Alton against #15 Mark Ballweg
• 157: #3 David Taylor against #14 Derek St. John
• 174: #2 Ed Ruth against #13 Ethen Lofthouse

Alton leads the team in pins with 16, Taylor leads in victories (25), and Ruth leads in duel-meet team points with 64 in 13 duels.

Original content Penn State Clips