Schedule / Printable Schedule
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue head wrestling coach Tony Ersland highlighted Practice on the Patio and Mackey Mayhem as the 2016-17 schedule was revealed Thursday. During the course of the season, the Boilermakers will hit the West and East Coasts and make their way around the Big Ten Conference.
The season officially opens with Practice on the Patio, held on the South End Zone of Ross-Ade Stadium on Oct. 15. Practice on the Patio will start at 10 a.m. ET and is open to ticket holders for the Purdue vs. Iowa football game that kicks off at noon.
"We are very excited to be able to take our practice outside to the South End Zone and expose our sport," Ersland said. "It's going to be exciting to put our guys in a different environment and show casual fans, or even those that haven't been exposed to wrestling, how hard our guys work. It's going to be a great experience for everyone."
For the first time in over a decade, Purdue wrestling will take to Mackey Arena for one of its duals. Mackey Mayhem will have the Boilermakers squaring off against in-state rival Indiana on Jan. 13 starting at 8 p.m.
"So many great things have lined up for Mackey Mayhem: we'll be wrestling our in-state rival, it'll be Friday the 13th and we'll also be having our Alumni Night," Ersland said. "When we told the team we were having Mackey Mayhem, their eyes just lit up. They're excited to take the action into Mackey Arena. That's going to create a lasting memory and that's something special for the team, but also the alumni that come back."
Mackey Mayhem marks just the third dual in Mackey Arena since the early 1990s for the Boilermaker grapplers, the last occurrence coming in 2004.
"When I saw the environment volleyball had with their Pack Mackey match my first year at Purdue, I got really excited," Ersland said. "It sparked the idea very early on that this was something I wanted to do with wrestling. We are going to work hard to create a tremendous environment. We want to expand our fan base and expose our sport to the casual fan, especially here are Purdue."
The first half of the 2016-17 schedule features four duals in Holloway Gymnasium, starting with the Boilermaker Duals on Nov. 13. Four tournaments, along with a trio of non-conference duals round out 2016. As the calendar flips to 2017, it brings forth the bulk of the Big Ten Conference slate. After Mackey Mayhem on Jan. 27, the Boilermakers will have their Hammer Down Cancer dual against Nebraska.
Wrestling's postseason starts with the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Indiana, on March 4 and 5, and the season will culminate at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, March 16 to 18.
#BoilerNotes
- Fifteen duals ... eight home duals, including five Big Ten showdowns ... six duals will be on the road and one dual will take place at a neutral site ... there are three first-ever trips on the schedule: Palo Alto, California; College Park, Maryland.; and Piscataway, New Jersey.
- Purdue has gone up against each of its 2016-17 opponents at least once before in program history ... the largest gap in meetings is nearly 11 years with Boise State (1/14/2006) ... the Boilermakers haven't wrestled Stanford in seven years.
- Five opponents will wrestle in West Lafayette for the first time in five or more years, including a trio of Big Ten foes ... after wrestling Iowa on a neutral mat in their last three home dates, the Boilermakers will take on the Hawkeyes in West Lafayette for the first time since Jan. 26, 2007 ... Wisconsin's last trip was Feb. 5, 2010, and Minnesota returns for the first time since Jan. 15, 2012 ... Bloomsburg makes just its second-ever visit to Holloway, the last coming on Dec. 10, 2005, and Northern Illinois makes the trek south for the first time since Nov. 15, 2008.
- The doors on the competition season open on Nov. 5 at the Eastern Michigan Open ... it is the second consecutive season the Boilermakers have opened their schedule in Ypsilanti, Michigan, however last season it was a three-dual day with the Eastern Michigan Duals.
- They will make their Holloway debut on Nov. 13 with the Boilermaker Duals ... it is the earliest home opener since hosting Old Dominion and Missouri on Nov. 10, 2012 ... the last time three-or-more opponents were hosted in a single day was the Purdue Duals on Dec. 20, 2009.
- Purdue will head to California for the second time in Coach Ersland's three seasons for a pair of duals against Pac-12 Conference programs in Boise State and Stanford ... the last time there were two Pac-12 opponents on the schedule was in 2005-06 when the Boilermakers faced four from the conference: CSU Fullerton, Boise State, Cal Poly and CSU Bakersfield ... CSU Fullerton no longer yields a program.
- While on their California swing, the Boilermakers will compete in CSU Bakersfield's Roadrunner Open in Fresno ... they also wrestled in the tournament in 2014 with 11 placewinners.
- The Big Ten opener vs. Iowa on Nov. 27 marks the earliest start in conference action since Purdue faced Minnesota in its second dual of the season on Nov. 22, 2013.
- Purdue returns to the two-day Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational Dec. 2 to 3 ... it will be the 11th time the Boilermakers have competed in the prestigious tournament since 2002 ... they will close out the 2016 calendar year at the 54th Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Evanston, Illinois, Dec. 29 to 30.
- Five of last season's Big Ten opponents carry over to 2016-17: Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers and Minnesota ... Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin return to the Boilermakers' conference schedule ... Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State came off the schedule.
- Mackey Mayhem marks just the third dual in Mackey Arena since the early 1990s ... Purdue has won both of the previous duals held in Mackey, both of which were against Indiana ... on Feb. 15, 2004, the 15th-ranked Boilermakers posted a 21-17 victory and won 29-10 on Jan. 16, 1992.
- Indiana will host the Big Ten Championships inside Assembly Hall on March 4 and 5 ... the event was last in Bloomington in 2006 and it will be the ninth time Indiana has hosted the tournament.
- For the fifth time in the past decade, the NCAA Championships will be contested at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis ... St. Louis has hosted the tournament on seven previous occasions, with the last being in 2015.
| WE LAST MET... | |||
| Opponent | Date | Location | Result |
| UIndy | Nov. 18, 2011 | West Lafayette, Ind. | W, 37-6 |
| Bloomsburg | Nov. 20, 2015 | Bloomsburg, Pa. | W, 37-12 |
| Northern Illinois | Nov. 7, 2015 | Ypsilanti, Mich. | W, 30-9 |
| Boise State | Jan. 14, 2006 | San Luis Obispo, Calif. | L, 19-14 |
| Stanford | Nov. 14, 2009 | Evanston, Ill. | L, 19-16 |
| Iowa | Jan. 22, 2016 | Iowa City, Iowa | L, 39-4 |
| SIU Edwardsville | Feb. 19, 2016 | West Lafayette, Ind. | W, 23-12 |
| Northwestern | Jan. 16, 2015 | West Lafayette, Ind. | W, 22-17 |
| Indiana | Feb. 7, 2016 | Bloomington, Ind. | W, 18-14 |
| Maryland | Jan. 17, 2016 | West Lafayette, Ind. | W, 32-6 |
| Rutgers | Feb. 14, 2016 | West Lafayette, Ind. | L, 24-15 |
| Nebraska | Jan. 9, 2015 | Lincoln, Neb. | L, 25-6 |
| Minnesota | Jan. 24, 2016 | Minneapolis, Minn. | L, 23-18 |
| Illinois | Feb. 1, 2015 | West Lafayette, Ind. | L, 21-9 |
| Wisconsin | Jan. 11, 2015 | Madison, Wis. | L, 22-13 |