St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt to retire

St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt will retire from the profession, per Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68. An announcement is expected this weekend.

Schmidt has been the head coach of the Bonnies since 2007 and has amassed a 338-253 record at the school. He is 420-343 in his career at this point.

St. Bonaventure will tip off against Davidson in the regular season finale at 12:00 p.m. ET before pivoting to the Atlantic 10 Tournament, beginning on Wednesday. We’ll see how Schmidt’s swan song goes to end the 2026 season.

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein had an interesting report regarding the direction of the head coaching search. There’s expected to be some NIL investment.

“Sources: St. Bonaventure plans to pay its next head significantly less than it was paying Mark Schmidt in an effort to put more resources into the roster,” he wrote. “The Bonnies are believed to have the second-lowest NIL budget in the Atlantic 10.”

Schmidt led St. Bonaventure to a conference tournament crown in 2012, a regular season title in 2016 and won both in 2021. He’s led the Bonnies to the NCAA Tournament twice (2012 and ’21), but did not advance past the Round of 64.

Prior to that stop, Schmidt coached Robert Morris from 2001-07, going 82-90 at the school. His coaching career began at Saint Michael’s in 1989 and had assistant stops at Penn State (1991-93), Loyola MD (93-94) and Xavier (1994-2001).

Schmidt, 63, played at Boston College from 1981-85 under Tom Davis and Gary Williams. He graduated from Bishop Feehan (Mass.) He’s in his high school’s Hall of Fame as the all-time leading scorer with 1,450 points and also for his school record in the 3000m Steeplechase.

The Field of 68 recently ranked the Atlantic 10 jobs. St. Bonaventure came in ranked No. 11 out of 14 schools in the conference.