The Wisconsin Badgers are one of four teams Sports Illustrated predicts will reach the College Football Playoff, and the OL got some cover treatment.
Offensive linemen famously don't get the attention they deserve, but the big fellas on the Wisconsin Badgers football team will get their day in the sun on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.
Wisconsin is featured on one of the four regional covers produced by the celebrated sports magazine for its college football preview, and the team is picked as one of the four to make the College Football Playoff in 2018.
Linemen (clockwise from top) Tyler Biadasz, Beau Benzschawel, Michael Deiter, David Edwards and Jon Dietzen are among those in a circle looking down at the camera for the cover, which features the headline "Big is Beautiful." SI also picks Washington, Alabama and Clemson to reach the CFP.
Other covers feature players from Clemson, Houston and Arizona.
Wisconsin opens the season Aug. 31 against Western Kentucky.
The Badgers line will be one of the reasons the team competes for such a lofty goal as the CFP. Deiter, Benzschawel and Edwards have played in a combined 103 games, and all three were given a mention on the various postseason All-American teams last year. Benzschawel was named first-team All-American by SI.
Biadasz of Amherst started all 14 games last year at center, earning freshman All-American honors from two publications, and Dietzen has started 20 in his career at guard. The depth is also top notch -- Micah Kapoi, Cole Van Lanen and Jason Erdmann also have a lot of experience, with 76 appearances between them.
The most recent Wisconsin connection on the cover came in early April when Milwaukee native Arike Ogunbowale appeared on a regional cover after leading Notre Dame to the women's basketball national championship. The other cover that week featured Villanova's Donte DiVincenzo, who was later drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks.