WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of wrestling coaches sued the Education Department  on Wednesday over a law that requires women's athletics to be treated equally  with men's programs.     The agency's enforcement means men are now discriminated against in college  sports, the lawsuit alleges.     The suit, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, primarily  blames a 1996 rule clarifying the 1972 federal statute known as Title IX,  which prohibits schools and colleges that receive federal financial aid from  discriminating on the basis of sex.     Because almost all the nation's universities and colleges receive federal  aid, the law has been credited by many with changing the face of women's  sports - although it also guarantees equal treatment in academics.     Federal regulations say schools can comply with Title IX by showing that the  number of athletic opportunities for women is ``substantially proportionate''  to their total enrollment. The 1996 clarification of those rules said the  number of athletes would be counted rather than simply the number of spots  allotted to teams.     The suit, financed by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, contends  that as a result of those rules, colleges and universities have aimed to  achieve equalization by cutting back on men's sports rather than by adding women's teams.     Over the last decade, 350 men's programs have been cut nationwide, said Eric Pearson, a co-chairman of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Those losses have come mostly in nonrevenue sports such as swimming, wrestling, track-and-field and gymnastics, Pearson said.     Numerous lawsuits have been filed against individual schools for those  decisions, all unsuccessful.     The NWCA suit argues that the federal rules, and particularly the 1996  clarification, were adopted illegally. It asks the court to force the department to write new ones that focus on providing opportunities for women based on the number interested instead of the number enrolled.     ``Capping a male athlete off a team or cutting an entire men's team solely  because not enough female students have an interest in athletics is gender  discrimination per se - with absolutely no corresponding benefit to women,'' the suit says.     The Education Department, through a spokesman, said it could not comment on pending litigation.     Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, said the  suit places the blame for the loss of wrestling and other low-profile men's teams in the wrong place.     Contrary to NWCA's arguments, she said, most schools add women's sports teams while still increasing opportunities for - and spending on - male athletes. The schools that eliminate men's teams such as wrestling and track-and-field are doing so mostly because they are choosing to concentrate resources on moneymaking sports like football and basketball, she said.     ``There has been a history of colleges and universities dropping wrestling, but it's a history that shows it had nothing to do with Title IX,'' Greenberger said. ``Their real argument is with the spending priorities of individual schools.''