Ohio State anticipates a record crowd.

For a battle between two teams that have won the previous six NCAA championships, the Buckeyes are changing venues and inviting the masses for their Friday night match against Penn State (6 p.m./BTN).

Normally hosting dual meets inside St. John Arena in front of some 3,000 fans or more, their Big Ten showdown against the Nittany Lions will be of a different flavor. Ohio State earlier announced that they’d move the event across the street to the Value City Arena, and according to the Columbus Dispatch, more than 10,000 tickets had already been sold as of Thursday. Total attendance numbers could reach upwards of 12,000, which would blow past the program record of 6,558 set last January against Iowa.

Those who do attend the Penn State-Ohio State dual – or watch live on TV – will be in store for a litany of storylines.

On the line for Penn State is a spot in the Dual Championship Series title event, likely against Oklahoma State on Feb. 19. Standing in the way, however, is a Buckeye lineup that boats a ranked wrestler at all but two of the 10 weight classes, a few of whom are ranked No. 1. PSU, meanwhile, has ranked individuals at every starting spot aside from 133 pounds, a weight at which NCAA champion Nathan Tomasello starts for the Buckeyes. Tomasello is one of three national title winners in the Buckeye lineup and one of four who will be in action. In total there are five No. 1-ranked wrestlers set to take the mat.

“I think there are a lot of great matchups,” PSU head coach Cael Sanderson said this week. “You have a lot of highly ranked guys going head-to-head, but a lot of times in matches like this, it’s the matches where you have guys that aren’t ranked (that help decide the dual). Every match is important.”

One of the more talked about pairings of the evening comes at heavyweight. Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder is the starter for OSU and the returning national champion at this weight class. He returns to the lineup this week after winning another freestyle gold in Russia last weekend.

He draws Penn State sophomore Nick Nevills, who has only one loss on the season to second-ranked 285-pounder Connor Medbery of Wisconsin, 4-3. A large portion of the crowd that’s expected on hand is likely anxious to see their world champ in action; Nevills will be trying to play spoiler.

“It’s a great opportunity for Nevills and not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination,” Sanderson said. “But you just go wrestle. Whether you’re wrestling an Olympic champion or somebody who hasn’t won a match all year, your goal always has to be the same, right? Just be the best you can be right now and go fight and enjoy the competition.”

The heavyweight match isn’t the only clash worth tuning in for Friday night. There, too, are interesting plots surrounding the majority of the other weight classes.

At 125, a couple blue-chip freshmen square off in Nick Suriano and Jose Rodriguez.

At 141, it’s Ohio State’s headliner from the 2016 recruiting class, Luke Pletcher, against Penn State’s only fifth-year senior, Jimmy Gulibon. Adding to it, they both previously trained with the same youth club located in Western Pennsylvania. Familiarity abounds.

At 149, Micah Jordan is a Buckeye standout who bumped up a weight class from a year ago after just missing All-America honors and will try keeping it close against Zain Retherford, PSU's national champion who is currently the most dominant in college wrestling.

At 174, Penn State true freshman Mark Hall seeks his second career dual-meet win with a chance to jump even further up the rankings the weight’s top-ranked wrestler, veteran All-American Bo Jordan.

At 184, it’s a rematch of last year’s 174-pound NCAA final between PSU's Bo Nickal and OSU's Myles Martin. Both sophomores but already the fifth career meeting between twim this is forming into one of the Big Ten's great individual rivalries.

At 197, before the highly touted heavyweight bout, Penn State sends out an experienced vet in Matt McCutcheon against a highly ranked freshman in a bout that could help dictate the dual meet’s final outcome.

Here are the projected matchups...

125: No. 2 Nick Suriano (13-1/Fr.) vs. No. 18 Jose Rodriguez (11-5/Fr.)

133: G. Carpenter (1-8/So.) or T. Law (0-1/Fr.) vs. No. 1 Nathan Tomasello (11-0/Jr.)

141: No. 11 Jimmy Gulibon (10-6/Sr.) vs. No. 15 Luke Pletcher (21-2/Fr.)

149: No. 1 Zain Retherford (15-0/Jr.) vs. No. 5 Micah Jordan

157: No. 1 Jason Nolf (15-0/So.) vs. Jake Ryan (10-8/So.)

165: No. 4 Vincenzo Joseph (11-2/Fr.) vs. Cody Burcher (14-8/So.)

174: No. 7 Mark Hall (20-2/Fr.) vs. No. 1 Bo Jordan (9-0/Jr.)

184: No. 2 Bo Nickal (14-0/So.) vs. No. 10 Myles Martin (20-4/So.)

197: No. 9 Matt McCutcheon (12-2/Jr.) vs. No. 4 Kollin Moore (20-2/Fr.)

285: No. 1 Kyle Snyder (6-0/Jr.) vs. No. 3 Nick Nevills (13-1/Jr.)