Wisconsin's top-ranked high-school football recruit commits to Minnesota

Gavin Meier, an offensive tackle in the Class of 2026 from Janesville Parker, committed late Wednesday to the University of Minnesota, continuing a trend of in-state players choosing to play at schools other than Wisconsin.

Meier is ranked as the No. 40 offensive tackle in the Class of 2026 overall and the No. 1 player in Wisconsin, according to 247Sports.

It hasn't been lost on Badgers fans that Wisconsin hasn't gotten recent commitments from top players inside the state anywhere close to the level of Luke Fickell's predecessors as UW head coach. Barry Alvarez famously made it a staple of his process that transformed UW into one of the conference's best programs, building a metaphorical "wall" around the state's borders.

But there are caveats.

The Badgers have, after all, continued to produce strong recruiting grades with a broader approach. Last year's UW recruiting class brought in players from 14 states.

In the 2025 class, the Badgers missed out on the state's top two recruits — Notre Dame Academy tight end James Flanigan and Catholic Memorial offensive lineman Owen Strebig, who both chose Notre Dame. It bears mentioning that Flanigan's father also played at Notre Dame.

The No. 3 prospect in the state, Tre Poteat of Verona, chose Tennessee. His father, Hank, had been an assistant in the UW program but wasn't retained under Fickell. UW did bring in five players from Wisconsin for the class.

In 2024, the top three recruits according to 247 all went to Big Ten rivals: Arrowhead offensive lineman Garrett Sexton (Penn State), Mukwonago offensive lineman Nathan Roy (Minnesota) and Catholic Memorial running back Corey Smith (Penn State). Smith finished with 22 carries for 152 yards in his redshirt freshman season for College Football Playoff-qualifying Penn State.

Rivals listed Arrowhead's Derek Jensen, a Wisconsin commit, as the No. 2 prospect in the 2024 class, with Donovan Harbour of Catholic Memorial (Penn State) at No. 4.

The Badgers had landed the top-rated player in Wisconsin in each of the previous seven classes: Running back Nate White in 2023, offensive lineman Joe Brunner in 2022, offensive lineman JP Benzschawel in 2021, offensive lineman Jack Nelson in 2020, linebacker Leo Chenal in 2019, defensive end Cormac Sampson in 2018 and tight end Jake Ferguson in 2017. Rivals listed Kayden Lyles as the top Wisconsin prospect in 2017, C.J. Goetz in 2018 and Julius Davis in 2019; all three also went to Wisconsin.

In 2021, the top six players in the state ended up at UW, including future NFL players Hunter Wohler and Braelon Allen. In 2020, it was the top four, including potential 2025 NFL draft picks Trey Wedig and Chimere Dike.

Arrowhead offensive lineman Ben Bredeson, the top-ranked player in Wisconsin in 2016, went to Michigan, though UW did land the No. 2 player in that class, offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen of Bay Port — who had an similar rating to Bredeson.

247sports ranks the Badgers ninth in the Big Ten for the Class of 2025. UW was ranked seventh last year — remember, the Big Ten was smaller then, but the team's rating was indeed slightly better — and 12th in 2023. The 2023 class was thrown together quickly after Fickell was hired and still fared well nationally.

The Badgers' 2025 class ranks No. 21 nationally according to Rivals, while 247 considers it No. 25, On3 No. 27 and ESPN No. 30. Fickell's classes have been regarded as top 25 in the nation three years in a row. The 2022 class, signed by Paul Chryst, had an average national ranking of 41.