ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — It was a viable option … 12 years ago.

Entering the 2008-09 season, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team was still viewed as a pushover, having finished last in the Atlantic 10 in coach Mark Schmidt’s inaugural campaign the year prior.

Teams were playing more non-conference games than they ever had before. And Mississippi State — already scheduled to be in the northeast that week for the Legends Classic at the Prudential Center in New Jersey — was in need of another game.

With those stars aligned, a unique opportunity was born.

On Nov. 25, 2008, Bona played the Bulldogs, then a year away from winning the SEC Tournament title, inside the Reilly Center, putting forth a valiant effort before falling 76-71. That was the last time the Bonnies hosted a “Power 5” opponent on campus.

It could happen then … but only because of a confluence of factors.

It has a very little chance of happening again.

Over a decade later, the landscape as it relates to scheduling in Division I basketball has changed drastically.

It’s become much more money- and power-program driven … almost political.

Major conferences have begun to jump from an 18- to 20-game league slate in an effort to boost their strength of schedule, and by extension, their at-large resumes for the NCAA Tournament, knocking out two potential games against mid-level foes. Big-time programs have become more unwilling to leave their state, let alone campus, if they don’t have to.

And in that time, Bona has elevated from afterthought into one of the top five programs in the A-10.

As a result, Bona has had an increasingly difficult time finding quality competition to fill its non-conference schedule. It’s not only become virtually impossible to get a high-major to come to the RC, but nearly just as unfeasible to host one in Rochester (with the promise of a return game) the way it did in Schmidt’s early years.

“People always ask, ‘Why can’t we get high-majors to come to the RC,’” Schmidt said in a conference call with season ticket holders last week. “When we stunk, we couldn’t get high-majors to the RC just because of where we’re located, it’s difficult to get here.

“And now, it’s difficult to get here AND we’re pretty good, and they may lose, so it becomes even more of a challenge. Even the games up in Rochester (Bona played St. John’s, Virginia Tech and N.C. State in a three-year stretch from 2009-11), those have gone by the wayside now because of (teams playing 20 league games).”

He added: Nobody wants to leave their own campus for someone else’s gym, a lower-level team that they may lose to. It’s been a challenge, and we’ll continue to work at it.”

Bona, for all it’s up against from a scheduling standpoint, has done an admirable job of adapting.

Its rise into both an A-10 power and a top-100ish program nationally has generated more opportunities to play in well-regarded in-season tournaments, something it’s begun to take advantage of annually. Since it can’t get the big boys to come here, it’s put its focus into luring top-flight mid-majors (as either a “buy game” or with a return trip) to the RC.

And in doing so, a kind of scheduling formula has emerged: Big 4 rivals and Siena, home games against quality mid-majors, an in-season event and one road game against a “Power 5” foe.

That’s the form the Bonnies’ 2020-21 non-conference schedule is beginning to take.

Bona, as previously announced, will take part in the 2020 Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands, among a solid mid-major field that includes Arkansas-Little Rock, Bradley, Buffalo, Cleveland State, FIU, Long Beach State and Weber State. It will also play its traditional rivals, with home games against Canisius, Siena and UB and a road contest versus Niagara.

Then, too, Bona was chosen to be part of the inaugural Mountain West-Atlantic 10 Challenge, where a road game at New Mexico awaits, and will get a return date from Middle Tennessee after playing the Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro, Tenn., last December.

That’s what we’d already known to this point. Here’s what came from last week’s conference call:

Matt Pappano, the director of basketball operations, whom Schmidt said “does a really good job with scheduling,” noted that Bona has two contracts in place for home games against mid-major teams that won their conferences last season. One of those opponents, per CBS’ Jon Rothstein, is Yale (Ivy League), which went 23-7 and finished No. 69 in the NET rankings, and is set to return a bulk of its roster this winter.

He also said that Bona is looking for two more games — which would put it at the maximum 13, including three in the Paradise Jam — one of which would come on the road against a high-major.

And while the slate as a whole is still coming to fruition, Schmidt is content with how it’s come together so far.

“We’ll have a challenging schedule,” he said. “We’re hoping it’s one where we can put ourselves in position for a postseason berth.”