Guessing you're not considering L.A. to Eugene is a straight shot up I-5. There's also less major programs they have to go against to attract their talent. USC and UCLA can't sign everyone, not every kid can get admitted to Stanford. Arizona, Arizona st and Cal are mediocre programs. Most kids end up staying relatively close to home or somewhere culturally similar.
The closest major metro areas comparable to L.A. are the Dallas Metroplex and Chicagoland. Oklahoma, Texas, TCU all recruit Dallas-Fort Worth and they can sell that they can play close to home and in the same conference. For Chicaco, there is not nearly the same amount of talent that is produced in southern california(Look at the amount of 4*s that come out of So Cal) St. Louis is actually much smaller than the aforementioned, and OSU is paying rent there right now.
Since everything should be parallel, in that Eugene is 900 miles from Southen California, other metro areas that are approximately the same distance from Lincoln with similar talent are Houston and Atlanta. We all know Nebraska or other B1G schools can't make a living there...its actually funny to think about. Hard pressed to ask kids to to skip the plethora of SEC schools in favor of an average Nebraska program.