The Florida Gators earned its second-highest preseason AP ranking in program history, coming in at No. 6 in the Associated Press' preseason college basketball poll.

• Florida earned the second-highest preseason ranking in school history, coming in at No. 6 in the AP Poll
• Michigan State was the overwhelming choice at No. 1
• The Gators open their season Nov. 5 against North Florida

The ranking trails only the team's defending national championship 2006-07 team, which started the season as the No. 1 team in the country on its way to a second straight national championship. The ranking marks the 13th time Florida has opened in the AP's Top 10 and the second time the team has done so under ocach Mike White.

Florida finished last season 20-16, upsetting Nevada in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to Michigan in the second round. The team will return point guard Andrew Nembhard, who played for Canada in the FIBA World Cup, and sharpshooters Keyontae Johnson and Noah Locke.

The big addition to Florida is graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear. Blackshear was named the SEC Preseason Player of the Year after averaging 14.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game for Virginia Tech last year.

The Gators open their season Nov. 5 against North Florida at Exactech Arena.

Michigan State set a program mark with its first preseason No. 1 ranking in that program's illustrious history.

The Spartans were the overwhelming choice with their veteran returnees led by star Cassius Winston. They topped 60 of 65 ballots in voting results released Monday, easily outdistancing No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 Kansas as the only other teams to receive first-place votes.

Duke was fourth, followed by Louisville, Florida, Maryland, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Villanova to round out the top 10.

Michigan State had been ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks in the AP poll before Monday. But none had come in the preseason poll, with the Spartans starting at No. 2 four times in the past decade.

“It’s almost bizarre to me because I would’ve thought Magic’s team was No. 1,” Izzo said in an interview with the AP.

Nope, the Magic Johnson-led bunch that beat Larry Bird and Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA title game started at No. 7.

The Spartans won 32 games last year and reached Izzo’s eighth Final Four before falling to Texas Tech. They return Winston with fellow starters Xavier Tillman and Aaron Henry from that run, and they get back another starter in Joshua Langford after he missed much of last year with a foot injury.

That nucleus is good enough that only one voter picked the Spartans as low as third, with four others picking them second and the rest at No. 1. They will be tested right away, too: the Spartans open the season against Kentucky in a 1-vs-2 matchup Nov. 5 in New York.

“This is a program deal and it’s the players in the program, and I’m really proud of them for that,” Izzo said. “Unfortunately, what you are at the beginning of the year doesn’t help you at the end of the year, but I think it does say something about the program and what we’ve done over these years.”

Roughly half of the voters (33 of 65) chose Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas in some order atop their ballot. Kentucky received two first-place votes, while Kansas received the other three.

It marks the ninth straight year that John Calipari’s Wildcats have been a top-five preseason pick and seventh in a row for Bill Self’s Jayhawks, who open the season with the program facing NCAA charges tied to a federal corruption investigation into the sport.

Kansas and Duke open their seasons against each other on the same bill with Michigan State-Kentucky.

Virginia has gone from facing questions about how it would respond to an unprecedented tournament loss against UMBC to how it will build on its run to its first NCAA title. Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers are 11th after losing De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome and Final Four most outstanding player Kyle Guy to the NBA draft. It is the lowest preseason ranking for a champion since Connecticut was 17th to start the 2014-15 season.