"The AAU dumped Nebraska essentially for two reasons.

First, the University of Nebraska’s medical school is at its Omaha campus, not the flagship campus in Lincoln. So, any federal research dollar, premier faculty member and publication in a prestigious journal from the medical school couldn’t be counted toward Nebraska’s AAU status.

Second, the university focuses heavily on agriculture research, a priority for a land grant institution. But in the eyes of the AAU, most agricultural research is not peer-reviewed, competitive research, so it is “not considered as highly,” AAU spokesman Barry Toiv said, compared with medical and economic research."