An overwhelming public issue within the wrestling community for many years has been Title IX, the landmark legislation passed in 1972 to guarantee equal opportunity in education. The original intent of this law is something that everybody can celebrate and support, regardless of gender or political viewpoint.    In practice, especially in college athletics, Title IX enforcement has been a nightmare for many citizens. This is especially true in the men's Olympic sports, where hundreds of programs and thousands of opportunities have been slashed.     Wrestling has been perhaps the most affected, dropping from approximately 775 college programs when the law was passed to barely over 300 today. This is fact, and cannot be disputed, even by those who wish to defend the status quo. Certainly, not every wrestling team drop was "caused" by Title IX enforcement; however, it was a contributing factor in many, many eliminated teams and, for a considerable number of teams, it was the main reason for the decision.    The core issue for the Olympic sports community is proportionality, one of the enforcement mechanisms developed by the bureaucracy (and never approved by Congress). This stipulates that a college must have a gender ratio in its athletic department that matches the gender ratio of its student body. This does not account for the fact that there are many more male athletes than female athletes in our high school systems, and that in recent years, there are many more females enrolled on college campuses than males. In simple terms, it is a gender quota for sports. And in practical application, this has caused the slashing of opportunity for men, without a strong incentive to create new opportunity for women.    Since the spring of 2002, Title IX has become a major national public policy issue. First came the filing of a lawsuit by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and others against the federal government concerning proportionality. Then came the 30-year anniversary of the law, a tremendous public debate. The U.S. government appointed the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics to review the law and make recommendations to the Department of Education.    Now, 15 months later, much has happened in the battle for Title IX fairness. Not all of the news has been good news for the wrestling community. With a tremendous outpouring of involvement from wrestling and other sports, the Commission hearings went very well for those seeking reform. A report that would have been helpful was approved by the Commission, and submitted to the government. However, under pressure from some radical organizations, Education Secretary Rod Paige immediately said he would only consider unanimous decisions of the group, giving veto power to those commissioners whose mission was to torpedo any change.    The NWCA lawsuit was dismissed by a Washington D.C. judge who decided that the organizations did not have the legal standing to submit its challenge. (No ruling was made on the merit of the case).    Then, on July 11, Office of Civil Rights Director Gerald Reynolds issued a "Further Clarification" letter concerning Title IX. For those seeking reform, this letter was a political bailout by the Bush Administration, basically doing nothing to change the current interpretation. Many believe that the current administration chose to abandon men's Olympic sports in an act of political expediency, caving in to a small group of individuals who will NEVER vote for the current president anyway. The idea was to get Title IX out of the headlines during the upcoming election. Fear replaced courage in the decision-making process by our government leaders.    So what can wrestling and other Olympic sports do now? Radical leaders are claiming victory, and acting as if this debate is entirely finished. Wrestling can give these people what they want by waiving the white flag and wimpering in defeat, or we can choose another path.    The leaders of USA Wrestling do not want our sport to quit. This issue consumed a large part of the August Board of Directors meeting. Leaders in wrestling want to work hard to keep the Title IX debate alive, continuing to organize, speak out and fundraise in the quest for fairness.    We need to use some specific language from the Commission hearings and the OCR clarification that helps wrestling. These documents say that the dropping of men's sports teams is a "disfavored practice!!!" We need to drive this language home, creating pressure on college presidents, athletic directors and NCAA leaders to give some teeth to this concept. We need to make it career suicide for anybody to drop a men's sport. This has to be central to our activity.    The College Sports Council has revived the legal initiative, filing new lawsuits in the courts. The first action is to seek a reversal of the district court decision to dismiss the original Title IX lawsuit. The second action is a new lawsuit to challenge the  July 2003 Bush Administration decision not to repeal the earlier policy. Both of these initiatives have promise, and deserve the attention and support of the wrestling community.    Is the Title IX reform effort over? No way! Not if we decide to keep fighting. Only a continued determined effort by every single wrestling family to seek fairness in sports opportunity will keep our sport alive. We can do this. Nobody understands hard work and dedication more than wrestling people. This match is not over, and we have the ability to win in the end. Follow Title IX news on TheMat.com, and make a personal commitment to remain involved.