mouser
Business of Hockey
I have literally no idea what the B1G has been up to in recent years. Of all the schools they could have added, Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers would all have been at the absolute bottom of my list.
Connecticut, though unlikely imo, does at least make some sense both geographically and B1G wise.
It's more about expanding their marketing footprint, and less about trying to cherry pick the most prominent university sporting programs. Nebraska kind of fell into the B1G's lap. And while it's not the biggest market, they dominate the entire state and have a lot of faithful expats around the country. Rutgers and Maryland are in two of the biggest media markets in the country.
Also the B1G seems to be pretty keen on only getting AAU schools--an association of leading research universities. 13 of the 14 members are in the AAU, and the one member that isn't, Nebraska, was a member at the time they joined the B1G.
List of current AAU schools:
https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5474