The two big advantages UN had over the rest of the old 8 schools was the unequal revenue distribution and their ability to bring in the prop 48 athletes. They did an unbelievable job bringing in those kids that did not qualify out of HS and getting their grades up to being able to play.
One of the first things UT wanted to get rid of was the prop 48 students, ISU did not take prop 48 students, UN went to ISU, KSU and KU to get them to vote with UN to stop the proposal. The three schools agreed to support UN over this IF, UN would support the change to equal sharing of TV revenue. The vote before had been 8 to 4, and they needed 9 teams to pass any rule change. UN always voted against equal revenue, and said they could not vote for it now. So ISU, KU and KSU voted to end the prop 48 kids, it passed 11-1, with UN being the only school opposed to it.
UN started to feel that they had lost control of the league, saw OU siding with UT instead of them, and like a jilted former lover, wanted out and the greener and weaker, they thought, pastures of the Big 10. They never imagined that the Big 10 would give them a schedule that all but assured they would struggle those first 4 years, and they did.
UN also lost a critical lifeblood of their recruiting which was the state of Texas, before about 25% of their roster was made up of Texas HS players, when the switch to the Big 10 occurred, that fertile recruiting ground dried up for Nebraska.
