It is the first weekend of November, and a light snow glazes narrow country roads that zigzag through miles of cornfields. On a sprawling campus that overlooks this rural scene, the country’s top-ranked college wrestling team is in a gym working out with an eye on a national championship.

Some things never change in Iowa, do they?

But this is not Iowa.

Then it must be Oklahoma. Or perhaps Minnesota?

It is central New York State. The campus is Cornell University, one of eight Ivy League institutions.

Although every N.C.A.A. wrestling championship since 1989 has been won by teams from Iowa, Oklahoma or Minnesota  with only 4 of 80 N.C.A.A. championships won from outside those states in history  this season, Cornell is the unanimous preseason No. 1.