I've seen this position mentioned in regards to Nebraska going back to the Big Xll. Nebraska isn't a good football team so there's talk amongst fans of wanting to leave for the perceived reason that we can't hack it. It's assumed that if we had been winning more, there'd be no talk of leaving and everything would be just fine. I get it and you're probably representing the thoughts of some Husker fans, but not everyone.
I think we can all agree that the money and academics is nice, so lets say the winning was at the level of the Bo Pelini era with one modification, no blowout losses. That's 9-10 win seasons with 3-4 losses a year being close and competitive. There's probably a Big Ten West title or two in there and the inevitable loss to Ohio St in the Big Ten CCG. That sounds pretty good and i'd be happy with that.
But winning aside, Nebraska being in the Big Ten still wouldn't feel right to me. It just doesn't look right. A decade later and we still look like we're a Big Xll team trying to make it work in a conference we don't belong in.
There is the sentiment that winning cures all, but it doesn't change the fact that we lost the one and only truly great rivalry we ever had, Oklahoma. I feel confident in saying that we will never have another one like it. People hate Iowa, but how does that hate compare to the hate for Texas? Does anyone else honestly care about playing any Big Ten team other than maybe Wisconsin and Iowa because they continually beat us and they're who Nebraska usually has to beat to get to a CCG? Is the only intrigue in the Big Ten because we are a bad football team?
Think of the flip side of that, Nebraska beats Wisconsin and Iowa along with the rest of the Big Ten West most of the time and what do you have? The Big Xll North, only you've replaced teams you have long history and rivalries with, for strangers.
In an alternate timeline of us winning more, this thread and others like it would still exist because to some us, the Big Ten doesn't feel right. To some of us, the Big Xll has and will always be, home.