How Fat Are College Wrestlers? 2020 - 2021 Edition

Every once in a while we drill down into the college weight certification data. For this past season, 2020 - 2021, we looked at 8,413 wrestlers rostered by 298 NCAA and NAIA wrestling programs. This data is from the week of 3/1/2021, just in time for the Big Ten and NCAA Championships.

You can explore the data on your own here.

From this initial group, 7,907 wrestlers had a certification weight above their Minimum Weight Class (MWC), meaning these athletes must lose weight to achieve MWC. Average body fat % at certification for this group is 16.2% with a range of 14% to 29% depending on MWC.

Body Fat % NCAA and NAIA Wrestling Teams, 2020-2021

If all wrestlers in this group dropped to their MWC, the average body fat is 7.1% with a narrow range of 6.5% to 7.7% excluding the 285 weight class. As in 2019-2020, if all wrestlers (except 285 pounders) sucked down to their MWC the fattest weight class is 125 pounds at an average 7.7% body fat.

Body Fat % by NCAA Wrestling Weight Class, 2020-2021

For NCAA Division I wrestling teams, average body fat % at certification is 15.3% with a range of 13.8% to 16.2% depending on conference.

Body Fat % By NCAA Division I Wrestling Conference, 2020-2021

Other Fun Facts

  • Average roster size: 28.2

  • Redshirts: 20% of all rostered wrestlers

  • 1st year of eligibility: 41% of all rostered wrestlers

  • Average weight of all wrestlers at certification: 175.8 pounds

  • Aggregate weight of all wrestlers at certification: 739 tons

  • Aggregate drop to get to Minimum Weight Class: 66 tons

  • At certification and on average, a wrestler from:

    • Univ of Michigan weighs more than Michigan State by 2.7 pounds

    • Univ of Oklahoma weighs more than Oklahoma State by .9 pounds

    • Iowa State weighs more than Univ of Iowa by 1.4 pounds

    • Penn State weight more than Ohio State by 1.6 pounds

    • Army weighs more than Navy by 14.2 pounds

    • Air Force weighs more than Navy by 1.3 pounds




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