By Earl Smith
Intermat

The final five selections for the National Duals Invitational were made on April 24 as there was a lottery-style drawing live on FloWrestling for the spots. 

Arizona State, Lehigh, Little Rock, Missouri, and Wyoming are the teams who could round out the field and travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 15th-16th. These teams will have to accept their invitation to finalize the field. 

Wyoming’s addition was the biggest surprise, odds-wise, as the Cowboys only had a total of three ping-pong balls in the hopper. Purdue had the most (12) but was not drawn. The teams with the next best shot at selection, Missouri (11) and Lehigh (10) both were chosen. 

Penn was eligible to be selected but had their ping pong balls removed as they indicated before the show that they did not intend to participate. 

Now that the field has potentially been finalized, the event will feature the teams that finished #2-#12 at the 2025 NCAA Championships - along with #14 Missouri, #15 Lehigh, #17 Little Rock, #18 (t) Arizona State, #22 Wyoming. 

Of the five teams selected, Lehigh might be the most imposing in 2025-26. They could field a team that includes All-Americans at each of the first three weights. 

Two alternates were drawn as well, in the event that these teams are not able to participate. West Virginia is the first alternate and South Dakota State is the second. 

There will be $1 million dollars worth of prizes available for the participating teams - $200,000 for the winning squad and a guaranteed $20,000 for each squad.