Washington

A group of wrestling coaches and representatives of other sports have lost their bid to have a federal judge throw out the U.S. Department of Education's rules on gender equity in college sports. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled on Wednesday that the National Wrestling Coaches Association and other groups could not prove that overturning the rules would help their cause or that they had the appropriate legal standing to bring the lawsuit.

The wrestlers filed the lawsuit last January claiming that the Education Department had violated administrative rules when it issued its policies on sports under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which forbids gender discrimination at institutions receiving federal funds. They also had claimed that the rules themselves discriminate against male athletes.

The department's 1979 policy interpretation says that, among other requirements, colleges must meet one of the following conditions to comply with Title IX: They must have roughly the same percentage of women on varsity teams as there are women in the undergraduate student body; they must have a "history and continuing practice" of expanding opportunities for women; or they must prove they are "fully and effectively accommodating" the interests and abilities of female students.

A 1996 clarification of that policy says that the first condition is a "safe harbor" and that colleges meeting it are presumed to be in compliance. The wrestlers claimed that that provision had forced numerous colleges to drop men's teams and male athletes, unfairly excluding them from college sports.

Judge Sullivan denied their claims on procedural grounds. First, he wrote in his opinion, the groups had "failed to meet their burden of persuasion on the question of whether they are the proper parties to be asserting the claims they raise against" the Education Department.

Second, he wrote that even if they did have standing to sue the department, they had not proved that throwing out the 1979 and 1996 policies would cause colleges to reinstate dropped teams. A "multiplicity of factors" plays into institutional decisions to drop sports, he said, Title IX being one of them.

Individuals and organizations are free to sue educational institutions for their actions under the law, but not the department, he said. However, eight federal appeals courts have thrown out similar lawsuits brought by male athletes against universities that had cut their sports.

The ruling "vindicates" the Education Department's position that "the department wasn't the right person for them to be taking action against," said Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the department. She said the lawsuit had not hampered the department's review of recommendations for changes to Title IX regulation published in February by a commission of officials from academe.

That review, Ms. Aspey said, is continuing.