Wisconsin is ranked #1 (and I'm not talking about drinking)

According to Global Language Monitor, University of Wisconsin has leapt past Harvard, Michigan, the University of Chicago and others to become the nation's top University.

The TrendTopper survey, described as a democratic rating system because it measures what is being said about institutions on millions of websites, social media sites and other conversations online as well as print and electronic media, supposedly reflects the opinion of the real world and assigns a relative value to the institution.

It turns out Wisconsin comes up big not just because it's a very good school (it is), but also because it's a bargain and in our challenged economy that's more important now than it was last year so it has a greater impact on the conversations.

That's the thing about brand value. It changes based on the environment. Does that mean that Harvard needs to radically change its curriculum or pricing structure? I doubt it. Does that mean that the quality of the education you get at Michigan is worse than it was last year? No.

What it means is that societal factors influence our purchasing decisions and in a tough economy price matters more.

Wisconsin is a very good school. My daughter is an undergrad there and my son will earn his Law degree from UW this spring. But when the economy improves their ranking will change, unless the administration uses this bit of good news to improve their image in other areas.