A threat to what? To win the B1G West? Why not. A threat to beat any good CFB team? Not this year.
I think they will settle in, into the Iowa/Wisconsin type of role in the B1G. If the B1G didn't add more teams, I could have seen them competing to represent the B1G West regularly.
With Oregon, USC, Washington added to UM, OSU and PSU in the B1G now -- I hope for Nebraska fans they reach the conference championship game this year, as I don't think they will get there again any time soon with those teams added to the mix. The fan base deserves to see them in Indy this year. It will be ugly, whoever they play, but the fan base deserves to see them get to a game like that.