Penn State wrestling Class of 2027 commit Clinton Shepherd is taking a bold step to get a head start on his collegiate career.

Shepherd will forgo his senior year of high school to join the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club and move to State College, he announced on Wednesday.

BREAKING NEWS Penn State Commit, Clinton Shepherd
Is on His Way to Happy Valley
He has chose to forgo his Senior Year of High School
Clinton will Compete at College Open Tournaments throughout the Year
He is Currently Ranked in Matscouts P4P Top 10@PennStateWREST… pic.twitter.com/6Me9uhRWCW

— Penn State/NLWC Fan (@NlwcFan) August 13, 2026

Shepherd, hailing from Crown Point High School in Northwest Indiana just outside of Chicago, is ranked as the No. 6 pound-for-pound recruit in the Class of 2027, according to FloWrestling.

Along with a stellar junior freestyle record, he won an Indiana state championship at 150 pounds in February 2026, two years after finishing runner-up as a freshman at 138 pounds.

He’s part of a stacked Class of 2027 for Penn State wrestling, which also includes No. 2 recruit Landon Sidun and No. 3 recruit Grey Burnett from Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. The Nittany Lions currently have the No. 1 recruiting class for that year.

This decision will not affect Shepherd’s eligibility, nor will it allow him to compete in a Nittany Lion singlet in 2026-27. He seems to be using the seldom-used “gray shirt,” which will allow him to compete in college open tournaments and join the RTC without enrolling and using a year of eligibility.

The gray shirt, often used by Ivy League schools to gain a recruiting advantage and get more out of an athlete who cannot use a fifth season anyway, is a loophole that is most utilized in college wrestling to get a recruit into the program’s surrounding RTC without them enrolling early at the university or officially joining the program. From there, the athlete may participate in open tournaments unattached, which will preserve all eligibility.

By using this loophole, Shepherd will maintain a full five years of eligibility once he fully enrolls in 2027-28. He will be unaffected by the NCAA’s new age-based guidelines because an amendment removed language that put an athlete on the clock after high school graduation.

The unattached loophole has been used by a Penn State athlete before. This is how Braeden Davis planned to maintain a year of eligibility prior to being forced into the lineup after Aaron Nagao’s season-ending shoulder injury last winter.

A much closer comparison to Shepherd’s situation, though, is what two-time national champion Levi Haines did ahead of his enrollment in 2022-23, similarly opting to forgo his senior year at Biglerville High School to gray shirt in 2021-22, winning the folkstyle Franklin & Marshall Open in January. He went on to be a four-year starter and one of the most successful Penn State wrestlers in the Cael Sanderson era.