Some of the wrestlers who had their program cut by a Southern California private college are using a counterintuitive tactic to try to save it. 

On Thursday, three male wrestlers from California Baptist University, a private religious school in Riverside, filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California against their own school. The lawsuit alleges that the school’s decision earlier this year to shut down three athletic programs — wrestling, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s golf — violated Title IX. 

“CBU did not eliminate these teams because they were failing, because of money, or because of space. It eliminated them for one reason only: the sex of the students who participate in them,” the athletes argue in the filing.

On Jan. 2, the school announced it was cutting the programs, saying the “evolving” college sports landscape forced the school’s hand. “It has become clear that we cannot maintain our current programs and realize the university’s goal of achieving greater competitive excellence that the new Division I era demands,” the school’s FAQ page about the cuts read. On that same page, Cal Baptist’s leadership said no amount of fundraising would lead it to change its mind.

The FAQ also included a question about why those three programs were cut out of the 19 varsity sports the school hosts. The school’s answer: “A number of factors were considered including community impact, Title IX, the House settlement, and available resources and facilities.” The lawsuit was filed by two attorneys from the Pacific Legal Foundation, which declares it “defends Americans’ liberties when threatened by government overreach and abuse.” It specifically seizes on the school’s mention of Title IX in its explanation.

The lawsuit alleges Cal Baptist’s dropping these three sports would reduce the number of men’s sports to be directly proportional to the Riverside school’s enrollment. Department of Education data shows the school’s overall enrollment is around 38% men compared with 62% women, but the lawsuit claims the athletic department had been at 46% male participation and 54% female. By cutting these three sports and their 69 athletes, the male athlete population will drop to 36%, the lawsuit says, and get the school in line with one of the three Title IX tests that most colleges with athletics base their compliance on.

The lawsuit’s main argument, however, is that the school is violating a different portion of Title IX that calls on institutions to not interpret Title IX’s code as a requirement to, in effect, balance the numbers. By cutting only three men’s sports, the lawsuit alleges, the school is actually doing the exact sex-based discrimination that Title IX is intended to stop.

“For too long, Title IX has been used as the reason universities drop programs,” Nolan Kistler, a former Cal Baptist wrestler and a spokesperson for the “Keep Cal Baptist Wrestling” movement, said in an emailed statement supporting the lawsuit. “Since the 1979 interpretation, wrestling programs have gone from around 150 to just 71. Instead of doing what Title IX was intended to do — expand opportunities, like adding women’s wrestling, now one of the fastest-growing sports in college athletics — schools have too often thrown their hands up and used it as a shield to cut opportunities without ever pursuing real solutions.”

Cal Baptist did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment about the lawsuit by the time of publication.

But the vast majority of those cases have had some women’s sports involved in the lawsuit. Lawsuits that focus solely on men’s sports being cut have not fared as well, even when arguing the exact point the lawyers representing the Cal Baptist lawyers are arguing. While the lawsuit cites the school’s decision to cut all three sports, the plaintiffs are only asking for the wrestling program to be reinstated.