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for recruiting purposes EVERY home game is very important at UNL

a chance to get teenagers on campus that have images of Nebraska as cornfields and cows and change the mental picture

Getting a kid on campus is obviously useful (or not), but if they come to a game, it's nice to have a real game and not a beatdown.

It seems a lot of kids sign on without seeing a game in person, they take their visits in summer.  Maybe they see a game later.

I really don't know how important seeing a game is for them, some no doubt, but seeing UGA smash Kent State is not going to be very exciting.

yup, and the fans in Lincoln are plenty excited about a beat down of Kent St.

Obviously the Sooners in Lincoln is much more impressive, but any gameday experience is going to be judged by the recruit
many recruits do "commit" before seeing a game or a visit to the program, but at Nebraska, very few actually sign w/o seeing a game in person

but, recruiting to Georgia this season is much different than recruiting to UNL

I wonder how many see a live game of any ilk.  As noted, their schedules can preclude it.  Maybe this is what Smart is noting, he wants another half game option for kids to be present.  I noticed a lot of visits in summer, which is not unusual of course.  The recruit gets more time with the coaching staff who are not "distracted" with game planning, talking to players, seeing the facilities, walking about campus and town ... the game day atmosphere is probably not that different from other major programs.

Were it me, I'd be most interested in the coaches and how fast I can get to the League, the NIL thing could play a role obviously.

The importance of homegame recruiting visits probably varies from school to school and, as you seem to suggest, it's probably less important now than it was a couple of decades ago, for various reasons. 

Even so, due to the complexity of scheduling in the Fall, it makes sense that Smart would want that extra 1/2 game, to have more flexibility in hosting.  I see no reason why that couldn't be allowed at a neutral site, but if Smart sees more value in a true home game than a neutral site visitation once every two years, then that's the explanation for why he'd be pushing to move the series to home-and-home.

If the fans value that neutral site game, they should make their voices heard.  If not, then the solution is obvious.

Hard to fathom that--in the SEC, of all conferences--there could so few home games in a season that are competitive.

Is that a function of peculiarities in conference scheduling?

Or is it the case that a few teams--Alabama and Georgia currently--are so far ahead of the rest of the conference that most conference games are not competitive?

Georgia football schedule: UGA’s future nonconference games are insane (usatoday.com)

In a few years, the OOC slate will improve with only one pastry most years.

I started a look back at past OU schedules. I first looked at 2010. Interesting.

H Utah State      W 31-24          USU finished 4-8
H Florida State   W 47-17          FSU (under Jimbo Fisher) finished 8-4
H Air Force         W 27-24          Air Force finished 9-4
N Cincinnati (in Cincinnati) W 31-29 Cincinnati finished 4-8
N Texas (in Dallas) W 28-20       Texas finished 5-7
H Iowa State      W 52-0            ISU finished 5-7
@ Missouri         L 27-36            Mizzou finished 10-3
H Colorado         W 43-10           Colorado finished 5-7
@ Texas A&M     L 19-33            ATM finished 9-3
H Texas Tech     W 45-7             TTU finished 8-5
@ Baylor           W 53-24           Baylor finished 7-6
@ OkSU            W 47-41           Pokes finished 11-2
CCG: Nebraska  W 23-20           Nebby finished 10-4
Fiesta Bowl: UConn  W 48-20    UConn finished 8-5

So, the two most "competitive" home games were one-score wins over Utah State and Air Force, while the "marquee" home game against FSU was a blowout win.
The two "neutral" regular season games were both tight--31-29 over Cincinnati and 28-20 over Texas.
The two losses were to good teams on the road.
The most challenging win might have been the 6-pointer over OkSU in Stillwater.
But, while interesting, it doesn't really say much about competitive games that you'd like to bring in recruits to see.