Thanks to those who replied. I guess I'm used to sports with more head-to-head competition in which a team wins or loses. Wrestling seems to operate differently as I've noticed that the real wrestling fans who post on this board seem to be very tuned in to the many tournaments that occur during the season.
NCAA allows 16 competition dates for a team for wrestling. Any single day event counts as a date. Any tournament, whether one or two days, counts as one. And, any two days of wrestling back to back count as one, I believe.
A lot, probably most, wrestling programs schedule an early season tournament, a holiday tournament, a few duals before the holidays, and most of their duals between the first week of January and the last week of February.
Now, those are all, or mostly, "varsity" events. Other wrestlers, like non-starters, redshirts, etc. can go to other events, without it counting against the 16 competition dates. However, they have to pay their own way, cannot be coached by a member of the wrestling staff and can't be "attached" to the school in any way. As someone else mentioned, it's a good way for them to gain experience.
While it might seem a little disjointed, it's actually better than other sports, because in other sports, the non-starters/redshirts can't do much but ride the pine.
