I've never been to Lincoln, Nebraska, but that's the comparison Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany made. From the Associated Press:
"It’s really about the games," Delany said. "We’re not the NFL, but the NFL has a very small-market team, Green Bay, and their games are national games, and everything they do is followed. The Nebraska brand has developed in such a way as other names like Oklahoma, Texas, Southern Cal. It’s one of those programs."
If you're really into specifics, Lincoln has over twice the population of Green Bay. Lincoln's even bigger than Madison. But the overall population of Nebraska is much smaller than Wisconsin, and every other Big 10 school is much closer to a major metro area than Lincoln.
But I digress. His point is that the Cornhuskers brand is a well known, and much beloved, despite having fewer advantages compared to many other schools. Would that make them a fair comparison to the Packers?