I remember when Nebraska was a fixture each year in the title chase. That was when the blue bloods ruled the ONE televised game each week. Now that Northwestern, Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin are all on TV just as often as Nebraska -- tell me why 4 and 5 stars would choose Lincoln?
Now I would choose Lincoln over half those but I am not a teenage boy.
I don't disagree with your basic point, but I'd add the following to it.
Go look at MOST of the big names at Nebraska, and what do they have in common? A large portion of them are from places way far away from the state of Nebraska. Mike Rozier was from Camden, NJ, which is literally right across the river from Philadelphia. Mike Rozier in this day and age is not discovered accidentally on a game film, he is well-known and goes to Penn State or somewhere closer to home. Tommie Frazier doesn't leave Bradenton, Florida for Nowheresville when NOWADAYS he can play on TV for a school like UCF (which in recent years has been a bigger name than Nebraska as much as their die-hards don't want to admit it). Turner Gill in this day and age doesn't leave Fort Worth for Lincoln, he winds up either playing running back at TCU or maybe developing enough passing to go to A/M or somewhere else. Lawrence Phillips doesn't leave sunny California (or his prior home in Arkansas) and go to Nebraska.
Bear in mind, I've just listed most of the truly great skill position players from the Big Red glory years. A guy like Johnny Rodgers would't stay home, either. Remember - we now live in a world where players from Eugene, Oregon wind up playing in the SEC (which never would have happened back in the 60s and 70s or really even the 80s).
And let me add something else here, it isn't ONLY Nebraska, either. They're the most prominent name, but if you go back to Colorado's glory years in the late 80s and early 90s, they had a similar situation to Nebraska except it concerned one particular state, California.
These guys were all starters on the 1990 national champions:
Darian Hagan - Lynwood, CA
Eric Bienemy - La Puente, CA
George Hemingway - Colton, CA
Mike Pritchard - Las Vegas (which borders CA and is how they found him)
Rico Smith - Compton, CA
Mark Vander Poel - Upwood, CA
Deion Figures - Bellflower, CA
Chad Brown - Altadena, CA
Tim James - San Dimas, CA
And the previous year one of their stars, Oklan Salava'a was from Oceanside, CA as was the late Sal Aunese, who only lost his QB job to Hagan because he was dying.
Now.....does anyone think Colorado will ever again be able to assemble that kind of football team with that many kids from that far across the country? Keep in mind they had three other starters from Texas and two who were military brats. That's 14 starters from out of state plus backup QB Charles S. Johnson coming from Detroit (and Coach McCartney was originally from...Michigan).
What kid NOWADAYS from sunny California is going to Boulder to play four years in a ski resort town where he can't afford to go skiing (and doesn't know) - when he can have his pick of pretty much any school that gets his name. Wouldn't you say, "Well, it does get a tad cold in Ohio in the winter, but it's not the mountains and they're a much safer bet to win than CU is?"
I don't include this to bash Colorado so much as to show Nebraska isn't the only school with problems like this. Of course, the difference is that Colorado as a state has a BUNCH MORE to offer than a football team that was once legendary.