Linda Ray Pratt, now retired as a UNL and NU system professor and administrator, said that all of the talk by sports media of UNL taking “rogue action” in the Big Ten “could endanger our membership in the Big Ten, which also has an important academic side for UNL.”

Efforts have been made “to bring UNL into the circle of action and research proposals, etc., that flourish in the Big 10 schools,” she said.

Lance Perez, dean of engineering at UNL, described “tremendous academic benefits to being in the Big Ten.” Perez said Big Ten engineering deans gather annually to discuss challenges and opportunities. “And this happens across the disciplines.”

Perez said he reaches out to Big Ten deans for advice on communication and relations, for instance, with the powerful National Science Foundation. “This group,” he said of the deans, “is amazingly collaborative, amazingly forthcoming.”

Michael Baumgartner, head of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, said he has no doubt that being in the Big Ten helps UNL recruit faculty members and engage in research projects.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance enables UNL and UNMC to meet academic leaders and to participate in exchanges involving faculty, students and library material, he said. When you partner with the Big Ten, Baumgartner said, you connect with “some of the best universities in the country, some of the best universities in the world.”