Every college student takes a road trip at one point during his or her college days.

This is no different for the No. 9 Penn State wrestling team, as it will be on the road for the entire month of February. The only difference between the two is that the normal college student doesn't grapple with an opponent on a mat at every stop.

"[The wrestlers] know what the schedule is, they know what they have to do, it's just our job to prepare them for it," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said about the upcoming road schedule. "It's just something we have to go through."

The Nittany Lions (9-3, 1-3 Big Ten) begin their month-long trek with a Tour de Iowa this weekend. Penn State will stop first in Iowa City tonight, where the Lions will square off against the No. 7 Iowa Hawkeyes (9-4, 3-1), who gave No. 15 Indiana its second-straight loss after the Hoosiers started the season 11-0. Then, they'll head 137 miles northwest to Ames and face the No. 8 Iowa State Cyclones (10-5, 1-1 Big 12) on Sunday afternoon.

"Both teams have a lot of good individuals," Sunderland said. "There are a lot of good matchups, especially the Bradley-Bradley match."

The match at 184 will be the highlight of the dual meet. Penn State's Eric Bradley, who is No. 1, will face No. 7 Paul Bradley of Iowa. The latter Bradley has been on the mat a lot more than Penn State's Bradley -- he has an overall record of 11-5, including matches in two opens this season.

Penn State's Bradley, on the other hand, has only wrestled five matches since returning from an ankle injury he suffered during preseason wrestle-offs, and he has won all five pretty easily. The only close match Bradley has wrestled was against Roger Kish of Minnesota. Kish is also the only match the two Bradleys have in common. Penn State's Bradley holds the edge here with a 3-2 victory over Kish, while Iowa's Bradley lost to him, 4-1.

Sunderland said he felt Kish was a bigger test for Bradley than Iowa's Bradley will be, despite Kish's lower ranking.

"Kish is a kid that pushes the tempo, even though he might not be as highly ranked as other guys, but he will be a guy ranked high in the country by the end of the year," Sunderland said.

All of these matchups coming up in the next month will determine the seedings for the Big Ten Tournament in March. One wrestler the Lions will pay close attention to in the upcoming matches is No. 11 James Yonushonis at 174. Yonushonis started off the season on fire, but has cooled off recently, which could be a sign of his body wearing down.

"We want to see where [Yonushonis] is at," Sunderland said. "He has a match against [Mark] Perry [of Iowa] that should give us some answers."

Perry is the No. 3 wrestler in the country and a very difficult guy to get off his feet as a take down has been a rare occurrence against the 6-foot sophomore. Yonushonis has been known to pull off the upset, but Perry has the momentum after pinning Marc Bennett of No. 15 Indiana.

"We just have to get bonus in the matches that we are favored and avoid giving up points in the matches that they are favored," Sunderland said. "Both matches are going to be close so every point is going to matter."