The transfer portal has changed the landscape of NCAA wrestling. Not only does it give us more to talk about in the off season, but coaches have had to alter their recruiting methods. This was on full display at the 2022 NCAA Championships considering almost one-fifth of qualifiers started their careers at different academic institutions. 

Below is some interesting data on how transfers affected the 2022 NCAA Championships. You may think you know who is the best at picking up transfers, but have you ever considered who the same institutions let getaway along with their potential points?

I would also like to remind everyone there are many reasons for an athlete to transfer such as graduating and their current institution not offering their desired graduate degree of study. It's not always just about wrestling or "fit".

If there is anyone missing from the final table please email me: jd.rader@flosports.tv.

2022 All-Americans Who Transferred

125

1st - Nick Suriano

133

3rd - Austin Desanto

4th - Michael McGee*

6th - Korbin Myers

141

2nd - Kizhan Clarke

3rd - Sebastian Rivera

149

4th - Austin Gomez

8th - Kyle Parco*

165

3rd - Evan Wick

197 

1st - Max Dean

8th - Greg Bulsak

285

4th - Greg Kerkvliet

8th - Christian Lance

*implies wrestler’s previous institution dropped wrestling

Those are the individual transfers that performed the best. So now, which teams do the best? Below is a list of the top-10 teams whose transfers scored the most points at the NCAA Championships.

Now, which teams lost the most potential points? Below are the 10 teams whose former wrestlers scored the most points. Nick Suriano is the main chess piece here as he scored 23 points and transferred from both Penn State and Rutgers.

So, teams performed the best by delta (meaning points scored by transfers minus points scored by wrestlers who left)?

There you have it, you can make a case that Cal Poly and North Carolina are better at the transfer game than Penn State, and the legend of Nick Suriano continues to grow.

Finally, a table of the NCAA qualifiers who transferred from a different D1 school sorted alphabetically by their current school. This does not include D2 or NJCAA transfers.

*implies wrestler’s previous institution dropped wrestling

**Evan Bockman transferred from Cal Baptist who is D1 but currently cannot compete in the postseason

***Carter Young and Greg Kerkvliet transferred before spending a full year at their previous institution, meaning they had no chance to become an NCAA qualifier there

Non D1 Transfers Who Qualified

John Arceri from Nassau CC to Buffalo

Ashton Eyler from Iowa CC to Lock Haven

Michial Foy from Harper College to Minnesota

Zachary Knighton-Ward from Nassau CC to Hofstra

Christian Lance from Fort Hays State to Nebraska