I got my MBA at Utah and I am happy to see them win every game but 1 every year - notwithstanding that - Utah is about, as BYU is also, to get introduced to what a little uptick in SOS can do to your W/L record. I am fully in agreement that BCS conferences are over-rated and that at the top, the MWC is very respectable.
I also know that playing Arizona, ASU, USC, UCLA, and Colorado and whatever northern PAC 12 teams Utah gets to play next year with BYU thrown in for good measure along with other decent teams the Utes have been playing OOC lately, produces a lot more opportnities to come up a little short, especially on the road, than playing NM, UNLV, Wyo, CSU, SDSU plus AFA, BYU, and TCU. It is difficult for teams like BYU, Utah, TCU, and even Air Force to ever have a losing conference record. SO, in the MWC, the big 3 or 4 just needed ot make sure OOC competitoin didin't do them in. It would be very possible to have a losing record in the PAC 12, and common to be 7-5.
Even if Utah has a 50/50 chance of winning every PAC 12 game - you end up 50/50. Utah will get beaten down playing those teams every week instead of once in a while. BYU will expereince the same thing as it beefs up its schedule - we are beaten up quite a bit right now irc.