At any given home meet, the Iowa State wrestlers would be lucky to look up into the stands at Hilton and see more than a couple hundred people.

Such a low turnout would be unheard of at a basketball or football game, no matter what the Cyclone teams are ranked. But ISU wrestlers are consistently ranked in the top 10 of the nation, yet fans of the sport are few and far between.

Iowa State Head Wrestling Coach Bobby Douglas said that the lack of interest is solely the fault of the wrestling community itself, and that the sport needs to change with the times, just like other sports do, in order to keep the sport alive.

Part of the problem, Douglas said, is that one school has dominated wrestling for too long. The University of Iowa has won the NCAA Championship four out of the last five years and went on a nine-year winning streak in the late 70s and 80s. The school has not finished below sixth since 1973.

“I think that parity will arrive next year,” Douglas said. “True parity, and there’ll be an opportunity for 10 teams to win the national title, and it could be decided in the finals, at the finals.

“That’s gonna make wrestling exciting; that’s when the spotlight is gonna go on. … Iowa didn’t hurt the sport. Now, for it to go to the next level, there needs to be other winners. We’re gonna see to that.”

Another contributor to the dilemma is the lack of funding for wrestling, which is a non-revenue sport. Wrestling programs across the country have been cut in favor of the big, money-making athletic programs like football and basketball, leaving around 100 wrestling squads in the entire nation.

But money is pretty much out of the coaches’ control. There are things, however, Douglas said, that wrestling coaches can do to ensure the future of the sport. He stressed that some old rules will just have to change.

“Anytime you have a static situation with rules that haven’t changed or been updated, then that holds your sport down,” Douglas said. “You have to be creative. When gymnasts started doing flips on the bars, it created a new interest [in the sport]. We have to do something with our rules.”

The biggest change Douglas would like to see is the elimination of riding time. Riding time is accumulated when one wrestler scores a takedown and remains on top of his opponent. One minute of riding time, at the end of a match, gives that athlete a point.

Many coaches, Douglas said, don’t want to see riding time go, a logic that Douglas just doesn’t buy. “They think it stimulates a chance to pin,” he said. “If there’s 30 seconds to go in a match, and I have to ride you to win, I’m not thinking about pinning you; I’m thinking about riding you.

“The rule says it’s illegal to ride. Now tell me where you separate the guy who’s riding you from the guy who’s trying to pin you.”

Douglas also wants to include referees in the rule-making and changing process.

“Tell us, what are the hardest calls to make, and let’s make it easier,” Douglas said.

One such “tough call” is awarding a takedown near the edge of the mat. Douglas said that most refs won’t call these moves as takedowns and grant the points because once a wrestler steps out of bounds, both are supposed to start again in the middle.

Douglas would like to see more refs call these moves as takedowns, especially since many wrestlers, upon seeing that their opponent is close to taking them down, flee to the edge of the mat.

He does like the 30-second overtime period, in which the wrestler who wins a coin toss decides whether to start in the down or up position. Some people say that the overtime rules favor the man who is down because an escape awards him one point while his opponent has the harder task of keeping him down.

But Douglas said “it depends on who’s on top, and who’s on bottom. But doesn’t it make things a little more exciting?”

And that’s exactly what Douglas wants to see: wrestling matches that are more exciting. Changing rules and eliminating others won’t hurt the sport, he said; on the contrary, it will liven it up, just as the three-point shot and the two-point conversion have done for other sports.

“Rules need to change because rules that are stagnant bring about the decay of the sport,” Douglas said. “When you think about it, they’re changing football all the time. They’re changing basketball. It’s not just because they’re trying to make it safer; they’re also trying to make it more interesting and exciting. We’re not doing that, and that’s sad. We’re killing ourselves.”

Douglas said that keeping the country as a whole informed about the importance of wrestling, including its rich history and tradition, is vital to injecting new life into the sport, especially when it is faced with strong competition from activities like soccer.

“Coaches have to educate the American public about the benefits of the sport, or the sport runs the risk of dying,” he said. We have to change our rules and create some interest for the sport, or we run the risk of decaying. It’s as simple as that.”