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"There was a lot of anger and a feeling of injustice," says Schnier, who has led his Bearcats teams to 12 conference championships and was named the Conference USA Coach of the Decade for track and field and cross country following the league's 10th anniversary in 2006. "For a long time, we've had good teams full of good students and good people. And to have that disregarded was very emotional.

"We all have a model of how our job works, and my model was that there's almost a one-to-one relationship between scholarships and athletic success," he continues. "So I had a hard time trying to overcome that thinking in my own mind."

Part of overcoming that thinking for Schnier was changing his approach to recruiting. Although the very top athletes may now be out of Cincinnati's reach, Schnier has been surprised at the number of good athletes who are still interested in the program.

"In a way, it is really a joy to simply announce that we don't have any scholarships and talk about things that are more important," says Schnier, explaining that the average scholarship grant for his athletes was only about $3,000. "I got back to recruiting for the University of Cincinnati the way I probably should have been doing all along. This is a great school, and it's worth attending. This is a good team that's worth being a part of.

"I've never been very good haggling over money," he continues. "And recruiting seemed to be so much about money and so little about everything else--I really should have been paying more attention to everything else. I'm kind of mad at myself that it took the scholarship cuts to get me to change."

On the track in 2010, the Bearcats pretty much matched their results from recent seasons. The track team won the All Ohio Championships, finished sixth in the Big East, and sent 12 athletes to NCAA Division I regionals. "The team had a very good attitude," Schnier says. "They took on the idea that, 'We have a problem, and we're going to solve it.'"

Since the athletes on scholarship when the cuts were made will retain their grants as long they have eligibility, Schnier estimates that the 2010 team was probably down about five scholarships from the NCAA maximum of 12.6. "Our performance this past season helped me feel better because we really didn't drop much, if at all," he says. "I don't know exactly how we'll maintain that each year going forward, but then again, if we can do it one year, we can do it every year."

At the same time, Schnier is still angered over the loss of scholarships. "I look at other athletes at this university and athletes at other universities and I'm thinking that our kids are as good as them athletically, scholastically, and personally--and our athletes should get the same treatment as those other athletes," he says. "In the whole scheme of things, some college athletes not receiving scholarships is not a major problem. Yet it is our problem."

Ultimately, though, Schnier says the job is the same, scholarships or not. "Coaching is coaching," he says. "Our job is to see improvement in our athletes. It may be more fun to see that improvement culminate at the national championships, but coaches get their greatest joy watching anyone improve."

Dennis Read is Associate Editor at Athletic Management.