KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Augustana University men's basketball opens the 2016-17 season ranked 18th in the Preseason National Association of Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll the national organization announced Tuesday. The Vikings were ranked second in the final NABC poll of the 2015-16 season that was released on March 8, before Augustana went on to win the first national championship in program history.
 
West Liberty earned 11 first-place votes and the No. 1 ranking in the NABC Preseason Poll. Lincoln Memorial, the team Augustana defeated in last year's national title game, is ranked second. Bellarmine earned the four other first-place votes and is ranked third. Saginaw Valley State and Alabama-Huntsville round-out the top-five.
 
Augustana is one of two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference teams to open the season ranked in the NABC Top 25. Minnesota State is ranked 17th. MSU Moorhead received votes in the first poll of the season.
 
Augustana has been ranked in 32 consecutive NABC Top 25 polls dating back to Nov. 25, 2014. Augustana spent 25 straight weeks inside the top-10 of the NABC Poll from Jan. 13, 2015 through March 8, 2016. The Vikings have been ranked in the NABC Top 25 Poll 74 times in program history.
 
The Vikings will tip-off the 2016-17 season in just three days as the team will head to Durham, North Carolina to take on NCAA Division I preseason No. 1 Duke in an exhibition game. Augustana and Duke will square-off at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. (CT).