America's "super-league" of global universities will play an increasingly pivotal role in the 21st century economy. These universities' substantial metropolitan and regional economic contributions are magnified by the role they play in fueling innovation, boosting educational attainment, and engaging with the rest of the world on an increasingly complex and interconnected set of issues. Reflecting what Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon calls the "World Grant Ideal," world class universities oriented toward public engagement in the land-grant tradition offer unparalleled capacity for collaboration, globalism, stewardship, innovation, and sustainability. The federal government can aid in the economic transition of the Great Lakes and its older industrial metros by helping to support the capacities and new potential these institutions offer, extending the spirit and mission of federal land grant universities into the "next economy." To this end, this paper calls for federal support to stimulate the first cluster of "World-Grant" universities to both refresh the region's (and nation's) competitiveness in cutting edge technologies, and to better connect the older industrial metros where many of these institutions reside to the world at large. (Contains 15 endnotes.)