Wisconsin in Athlon Sports, Pro Football Focus Top 25 Rankings

Though the scheduled start of the 2020 season is still months away, a couple of publications have recently placed Wisconsin in the top 15 schools of their respective Top 25 rankings.

First, Athlon Sports released their early "Top 25 for 2020" on May 19. Six Big Ten teams made the cut, including Wisconsin at No. 12. The Badgers are ranked as the third-highest conference team behind Ohio State (No. 3) and Penn State (No. 5), but in front of Michigan (No. 15), Minnesota (No. 20) and Iowa (No. 25).

Pro Football Focus's Eric Eager unveiled the site's "all-too-early top 25" power rankings on May 20, which is calculated "using the PFF Elo system that is the base power metric for our NCAA simulation." Once again, the Badgers hover between the top 10 and top 15 at No. 13 -- the fourth-highest program among Big Ten schools.

Both mention Wisconsin needing to replace the production of running back Jonathan Taylor, wide receiver Quintez Cephus and linebacker Zack Baun. Athlon also discussed how the defense needs to replace Chris Orr's contributions alongside Baun's and how the offense will have a new interior of starting linemen. That is due to center Tyler Biadasz declaring early for the NFL Draft and guards David Moorman and Jason Erdmann -- who asserted themselves towards the end of the season -- exhausting their eligibility.

The skill spots will be dissected and rightfully so, but honestly, the offensive line fits and combinations will be something AllBadgers.com really keys into once football starts up (whenever that is). We mentioned previously about the positions in Joe Rudolph's room being the most exciting to watch, for that matter.

Having players that have started at the guard slots like Kayden Lyles and Josh Seltzner (four games each in 2019) provides experience and some stability. Who steps up at center will be the most intriguing question for me heading into fall camp, as someone will have to be called upon to take over for Biadasz. The unanimous first-team All-American and fourth-round draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys started 41 consecutive games between the 2017 and 2019 seasons.