NCAA tournament: Michigan State vs. Miami - March 17, 2017

Michigan State and head coach Tom Izzo will play at Florida during the 2018-19 season as the return trip of a home-and-home contract between the schools.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

Michigan State basketball's 2017-18 schedule will be taxing, but a trip to Gainesville won't be part of it.

An MSU official confirmed to MLive on Monday that the Spartans' originally scheduled game at Florida next season has been pushed to the 2018-19 season.

Previously, Michigan State was slated to play the return trip on a home-and-home contract between the schools this upcoming season. The Gators previously played in East Lansing in 2015-16.

Instead, due to a scheduling crunch, MSU and Florida moved the game to 2018-19.

The change came amid the need for symmetry in the schedule, both in the number of games being played in a short amount of time and home/road balance.

MSU is trying to navigate some significant scheduling changes. The Big Ten Tournament is being played a week earlier than usual this season -- on February 28-March 4, 2018 -- in order for the event to be held at Madison Square Garden. Because of that curveball, and to still accommodate an 18-game Big Ten schedule, all league teams are playing two conference games in early December this season.

Those games are expected to land on the first week of December -- in the heart of non-conference play -- with all Big Ten teams playing one home game and one road game.

Shoehorning in a trip to Florida amid such a crunch proved daunting.

A replacement game on MSU's 2017-18 schedule for the postponed UF trip is still being finalized, along with a few other openings on the Spartans' schedule.

Of the known games that are set, Tom Izzo's team will be well-tested.

One season after falling at Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Michigan State will again face the Blue Devils in the Champions Classic at the United Center in Chicago on Nov. 14. Izzo is 1-10 all-time against Mike Krzyzewski.

From Nov. 23-26, MSU will play three games in the Phil Knight Invitational, a Nike-organized event in Portland consisting of two brackets of eight teams playing games at Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The brackets have not yet been released, but other participants include Arkansas, Butler, Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Georgetown, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Portland, Portland State, Stanford and Texas.

While the Spartans will avoid having Duke and Ohio State in their bracket, they could, in fact, end up facing Florida, after all.

MSU will play in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge after the trip to Portland, most likely on Nov. 29. Since the Spartans played at Duke last year, they're anticipating a home game in 2017-18.

Then Michigan State will play its two aforementioned December conference games.

On Dec. 16, the Spartans will partake in a doubleheader at the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. They'll face Oakland, while Michigan and Detroit Mercy play the other game.

The remainder of MSU's 2017-18 schedule remains to-be-announced.

Looking ahead, by moving the Florida game to 2018-19, Michigan State will likely play at least two true road games against high-major competition in non-conference play. The Spartans will assumingly be on the docket for a road date in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge that season.