ISU wrestling coach Bobby Douglas said Thursday’s vote for only modest changes to Title IX does not leave a bright future for collegiate wrestling.

“There is a real danger that if this continues, we won’t have wrestling in the 21st century,” Douglas said.

Many wrestling coaches across the country, including Douglas, had hoped the Bush administration advisory commission would vote for changes to Title IX, a 30-year old gender equity law that calls for federally funded institutions to provide the same opportunities for males and females.

Douglas said the law is laid out unfairly, especially because of what is known as the “proportionality” requirement, which holds that a school’s male-female athlete ratio must be “substantially proportionate” to its male-female enrollment.

Douglas said he agrees with the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) that the proportionality requirement has turned into a quota system. “Proportionality needs to be fixed,” Douglas said. “It’s not fair.”

So many wrestling programs have been eliminated in the 1990s that the NWCA filed a lawsuit in January 2002 claiming Title IX discriminates against men, while expanding athletic opportunities for women.

The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics voted on, among other things, to eliminate the “proportionality” requirement, but it failed by an 11-4 vote.

In another vote, the commission voted to not count male athletes that “walk-on” to the team and are not currently on scholarships as part of a school’s male total.

ISU athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said it will be at least five years before Iowa State will be in complete compliance with Title IX.

Some had thought the commission would vote to weaken requirements for Title IX compliance. Van De Velde said he was following the news closely, but didn’t anticipate big changes to Title IX.

Institutions that do not comply with Title IX may lose federal funding, although schools are often given the chance to agree to a plan to meet specific Title IX requirements rather than losing any financial support.

The law covers high schools across the country, as well as colleges and universities. The number of girls participating in high school sports has risen from 294,000 in 1971 to 2.8 million last year. Female participation in collegiate athletics has increased fivefold in those 31 years.

Still, enforcing the law has been a problem. ISU women’s basketball player Lindsey Wilson said something needs to be done about schools that aren’t trying to achieve compliance.

Wilson said several schools having trouble complying with Title IX due to the slow economy and budget problems, such as Iowa State, shouldn’t be penalized as long as a plan has been agreed on to reach eventual compliance.

In April 2000, Iowa State eliminated the baseball and men’s swimming programs. At the time, many wondered whether Title IX was part of the reason the sports were cut.

“I wouldn’t say that Title IX was the reason,” Van De Velde said. “It was a financial decision that we had to make at that time.”

Wilson said many schools across the country have had similar financial trouble recently and done away with men’s sports. She thinks Title IX may be getting blamed for the financially induced elimination of men’s sports, including wrestling programs.

“They’re not doing it to be in compliance, and that’s something not a lot of people realize,” Wilson said. “They do it because there isn’t enough money.

“If it were a perfect world, I don’t think anyone would want any sport to be cut,” she said.

“Unfortunately, for non-revenue men’s sports — and also with non-revenue women’s sports — that’s the way it goes in our society.”

Wilson said she’s convinced Title IX is one of the reasons she is an athlete at Iowa State.

“The female athletes of my generation have been around long enough that they understand that prior to Title IX we wouldn’t have had the opportunities that we have,” she said. “It’s really a relief that they didn’t completely change it.”

— The Associated Press

contributed to this story.