Despite some recent unfortunate injury news for the Spartans, Jon Rothstein still considers Michigan State a top 25 team ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Rothstein — a well-known college basketball insider with CBS Sports — released updated preseason rankings for the 2025-26 campaign, and he has Michigan State in the top 25. The Spartans checked in at No. 21 in Rothstein’s most recent rankings.
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Michigan State recently lost incoming transfer wing Kaleb Glenn to a season-ending injury during offseason workouts. He was expected to be one of the Spartans’ key reserves off the bench this upcoming season.
Among Big Ten teams, Michigan State is ranked No. 5. The Spartans are behind the following teams: Purdue (No. 1), Michigan (No. 5), UCLA (No. 6) and Oregon (No. 20). Rothstein’s rankings include the top 45 teams in the country, so he also had the following teams from the Big Ten included behind the Spartans: Illinois (No. 22), Wisconsin (No. 23), Ohio State (No. 26), USC (No. 33), Maryland (No. 35) and Nebraska (No. 41).
The ranking for the Spartans didn’t change despite the loss of Glenn, which I found somewhat surprising. It’s also hard to truly understand the impact of losing Glenn since he was an incoming transfer and not considered a starter — so leaving Michigan State put also makes sense.
Click on the post below to see the complete rankings from Rothstein:
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Up or down? See where MSU basketball ranks in latest preseason poll