Notre Dame Joe
All-Conference
And the weird thing is this tangent is based off my statement yesterday that the Big XII is going to be the first P5 conference to fold. Which I stand behind, because it's a business venture held together by disparate cultures and entities, without the solid, unified core of the SEC, ACC, Big Ten or PAC-12.
The heart of the Big XII is the old Big 8. Of those, only five remain - Oklahoma, Okie State, Iowa State, Kansas & Kansas State. Of those, only one is a marquee team. The other four have no cachet. Only Oklahoma is a blue blood.
Of the old SWC refugees the Big XII pulled in to screw Nebraska, only three remain (although they've since added TCU), and of those only Texas is a marquee team. Nobody cares if Baylor, Texas Tech or TCU come or go. And Nebraska doesn't have a history with those teams more relevant than any team in the Big Ten.
This is all to say that, were Nebraska to go back to the Big XII, they'd just hasten their own demise. It's a lackluster conference and the least relevant of the P5. Its two big names have had one foot out the door since before Nebraska left, and that's not going to change just because a Husker team needing to rebuild comes begging back, hat in hand.
The Skinny Big-12 "could" be a better fit for NU even if it lacks Colorado. You would get to play OU every Thanksgiving (the Cowboys would understand, believe me) and be able to develop real annual rivalries that help recruit the state of TX. Of course, you likely wouldn't opt out of the $50 million media deal to try it out