Many have Michigan State basketball as a top 25 team heading into next year, but only a few have the Spartans in the top 10. That includes CBS Sports’ analyst Jon Rothstein.
Like many in the college basketball media field, Rothstein released his way-too-early rankings for the 2025-26 season this week, and he is particularly high on the Spartans heading into next year. Rothstein has Michigan State slated as the No. 9 team in his rankings. In reviewing the many different super early preseason rankings, I have only seen two others have Michigan State in the top 10: Sporting News at No. 5 and The Athletic at No. 7.
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In comparison to the Big Ten, Michigan State is only behind a trio of squads: Purdue (No. 2), Michigan (No. 5) and UCLA (No. 7). Other Big Ten teams included in Rothstein’s rankings (which is of the top 45 teams nationally) are Oregon (No. 14), Wisconsin (No. 21), Ohio State (No. 24), Illinois (No. 29), USC (No. 36), Nebraska (No. 38) and Northwestern (No. 39).
It’s clear the Rothstein is very high on the Big Ten entering next year, as not many others have four teams from the league in the top 10 like him. But if the Big Ten is as good as he thinks it will be next year, then it certainly would make sense for the Spartans to be again in the top 10.
Check out the complete rankings from Rothstein by clicking on the post below:
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: MSU basketball listed in top 10 of Rothstein’s way-too-early rankings
