Idk. Before the B1G added Oregon, Washington, USC, & UCLA….I’d say he was kinda right.
Michigan & Ohio State are without question the big dogs and bring in all the tv audience for football- hence all the money for everyone else in the league. Penn State is almost at their level but not quite- they are like their kid brother. Highly important to the league for sure in terms of tv dollars. But after Penn State, the the rest of the league is pretty much meh.
Nebraska would’ve been a big dog 30 years ago, but I think they might be dead on arrival and never to be back to what they once were. Landscape has changed so much and they are at maybe the most extreme disadvantage for recruiting base of any major helmet there is.
The statement that Ohio State/Michigan have more clout/resources than the other schools combined stretches the outer limits of hyperbole.
In 2022 the gap between average viewers for Ohio State and Michigan (1.43 million) was larger than the gap between Michigan and Penn State (1.32 million). Source:
https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbdAs far as resources go, based on 2022 revenue Ohio State/Michigan was $462,267,632. The next three schools - Penn State, Michigan State, Indiana - had a combined revenue of $520,788,432. And again, the gap between Ohio State and Michigan ($40,963,058) was larger than the gap between Michigan and Penn State ($29,424,839).
Source:
https://www.on3.com/news/usa-today-releases-top-25-total-revenue-college-athletics-programs/If anything, I would say Ohio State is a tier of its own. Followed by Michigan in a tier of its own with Penn State near that tier, but leading the tier of others.
Disclaimer: Sources should be taken for a grain of salt, and I am an attorney so my math is probably wrong.