I'm often a pessimist, so I have a hard time believing that it will ever be anything besides one of those weird subtle differences between MN and WI. (For similar full disclosure: I grew up in Richfield, MN back when Darby Hendrickson was living the "Pride on Ice" dream to its fullest... in my eyes it's always been the hockey thing, the Packers and the ratio of Germans to Scandinavians that made up the bulk of the differences between the two states)
In all honesty, there could maybe be enough support for several of the Wisconsin DIII schools to have some sort of decent program (not to pick on the Mavs, but it would probably be more on par with what they have). I haven't looked at any attendance figures to back up that point, but I've a hunch that there's enough of something up there to support something. I'm sure that St. Norbert's considered it on more than one occasion.
But at this stage, with the NCAA limitations on playing up from DIII to DI being what they are, I'm not even sure that its formally possible to actually do so. Despite my bitter nature, that's actually more what I have in mind when I say that the local talent supply isn't the hold up.