Rebuild the Badgers, Not Just the Roster
How Wisconsin fell behind in college football's new market, and how to make the rebuild last
Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy
How Wisconsin fell behind in college football's new market, and how to make the rebuild last
For every 100 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin’s border counties in 2012, there were about 117 in 2025. Across the state line, 100 became 96.
Most colleges don’t have Harvard’s admissions problem. At Harvard, seats are scarce. At many colleges and programs, the scarce thing is the student.
Wisconsin’s college-educated residents do not leave at unusually high rates. The deeper weakness is that relatively few educated newcomers arrive, especially from far away and among people born in other states.
Wisconsin remains near the bottom nationally in its four-year-to-two-year funding ratio under alternative measures of enrollment.
Wisconsin ranks 7th nationally in public support per student for its technical colleges—and 43rd for its universities.
Wisconsin has spent decades losing too much young talent. It has so far avoided an Illinois-style high-income outflow. The next governor should try to fix the first without creating the second.
Wisconsin can win the AI buildout without sticking families and manufacturers with the bill. Build the power. Protect local control. End special deals. Make large users pay their own costs.
It is a budget story. WI competes in markets with a budget model built for a slower world. The state effectively constrains what the university can charge and directly limits what it can borrow.
Wisconsin's skilled workforce gap isn't a pipeline problem. The state meets or exceeds national averages in high school completion, college enrollment, and in-state attendance. The bigger challenges: demographics, talent attraction, and high-skill retention.