Nebraska, Ohio State and one or two more were pushing for this and yes Ohio State does have that much influence in the Big Ten. If Ohio State leaves that is the biggest program in the Big Ten along with the highest revenue making team in the conference if Ohio State decided to leave the Big Ten every conference would be begging them to join and probably throwing gobs of money at them to join. Ohio State basically owns the Big Ten because there isn't another perennial top 5 football team in the conference and they are the biggest revenue makers for the Big Ten. Ohio State is basically the Yankees and everyone else are either the Mets, Rays, some AAA team or a AA team.