Bullsht. Absolute bullsht.
Wisconsin is closest in population to Maryland, Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota. Let's do a little counting!
Wisconsin: 4 D1, 1 D2
Maryland: 9 D1, 2 D2
Missouri: 6 D1, 13 D2
Colorado: 5 D1, 10 D2
Minnesota: 2 D1, 9 D2
You have to be blind if you don't recognize the outcome. How do you think UW-L gets like 10 kids who can run a sub-22 200? Is it because Wisconsin just breeds elite sprinters? No, it's because they go D3 at UW-L whereas a lot of them would go low-D1 or D2 in other states.
And I hear you, it's not that simple; there are economic reasons why someone might want to go to a in-state school, and obviously it is also true that UW-L does a great job of developing talent. But come on, to pretend like they're not getting kids, year after year, that are D1/D2 talent is just the ultimate bullsht. And further, they absolutely are competing against schools with less resources -- they have almost 10,000 undergrads! That is four times the size of the both the median and the mean D3 school.
Just be honest. It's OK. Having all these huge advantages doesn't just walk a title to their door. But it absolutely, 100% helps.