For the seventh-straight season Kevin O’Sullivan’s ball club will begin the season ranked according to the Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I Preseason Poll, which was released on Monday.

The Gators baseball team comes in ranked sixth in the nation. Defending national champion Vanderbilt headlines the publications’ top five, followed by TCU, Virginia, LSU and Oklahoma State.

The Gators are coming off of a season that saw them return to the top of the SEC, winning their third SEC crown in the past five seasons. Returning from that championship squad are 22 letter winners, including junior leaders Harrison Bader (who has led the team in batting the past two seasons), Richie Martin and a slew of sophomore arms including A.J. Puk, Logan Shore, Brett Morales and Kirby Snead.

Florida will kick off the season on Valentine’s Day weekend, hosting Rhode Island. Florida has close to half of its games versus opponents who advanced to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including home series against Alabama, Kentucky, Miami and South Carolina, and will have a pair of road series against teams that advanced to Omaha (Ole Miss and Vanderbilt).

Florida is one-of-six SEC teams to be ranked in the poll and 10 SEC teams in total were either ranked or received votes.

2015 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s NCAA Division I Preseason Poll

Rank School (’14 Final Record) Points Vanderbilt (51-21) 494 TCU (48-18) 492 Virginia (53-16) 489 LSU (46-16-1) 487 Oklahoma State (48-18) 485 FLORIDA (40-23) 483 Texas (46-21) 480 Houston (48-18) 479 Texas Tech (45-21) 477 UCLA (25-30-1) 473 Florida State (43-17) 469 Louisville (50-17) 468 Cal Poly (47-12) 467 Miami (FL) (44-19) 465 Oregon (44-20) 462 UC Santa Barbara (34-17-1) 460 Cal State Fullerton (34-24) 458 Stanford (35-26) 457 Arizona State (33-24) 454 Mississippi State (39-24) 452 South Carolina (44-18) 449 Rice (42-20) 446 Liberty (41-18) 445 North Carolina (35-27) 443 College of Charleston (44-19) 440 Georgia Tech (37-27) 438 Kennesaw State (40-24) 436 Clemson (36-25) 432 St. John’s (35-20) 430 Kent State (36-23) 427 Ball State (39-18) 425 Wichita State (31-28) 424 Tennessee (31-23) 421 San Diego (34-20) 419 Loyola Marymount (32-24) 417 Arkansas (40-25) 414 Maryland (40-23) 412 Nebraska (41-21) 411 UC Irvine (41-25) 409 Illinois (32-21) 405

Other Teams Receiving Votes: Oregon State (49-15), San Diego State (42-21), UL-Lafayette (58-10), Kentucky (37-25), Washington (41-17-1), Ole Miss (48-21), Southern California (29-24), Alabama (37-24), Texas A&M (36-26), Arizona (22-33), New Mexico (37-20), UNLV (36-25), Dallas Baptist (40-21), Indiana State (35-18), Sacramento State (40-24), Troy (25-32), Texas State (30-28), Pepperdine (43-18), Grand Canyon (30-23), Miami (OH) (30-27), Southern Miss (35-25), FIU (36-20), Indiana (44-15), Sam Houston State (43-19), Michigan (30-29-1), UCF (36-23), Florida Gulf Coast (39-22), Stony Brook (35-18), St. Louis (34-21-1), Seton Hall (39-15), Creighton (32-17-1), Campbell (41-21), South Alabama (22-33), Winthrop (27-30), Coastal Carolina (24-33), William & Mary (34-22), Wright State (35-22), Central Michigan (35-23), Bryant (42-16), SE Missouri State (37-20), Tennessee Tech (40-19), Mercer (38-17), Samford (35-25), Western Carolina (37-18), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (31-27), Southeastern Louisiana (38-25).