I'll disagree here but only a little bit. With Utah already beating UCLA on the road and still having USC and Arizona at home, it's not the biggest stretch in the world to say that it's at least conceivable they could win the South this year and play in the PAC championship game. If they got there, Oregon and Stanford are beatable on any given night.
That's more feasible than the challenge BYU currently faces. As we've seen, creating a quality independent schedule year in and year out has been very challenging for Tom Holmoe. BTW, I think he's done an exceptional job with what he's been given to work with. Any schedule that's good enough for BYU to make a run at a playoff probably includes various weeks throughout the season that has BYU zigzagging the country. I'm a firm believer that long travel dates has a huge impact on college players. That's a lot of extra strain to bear all while knowing you can't afford one slip up.
Conversely, Utah can have a slip up at the hands of Wazzu, yet still have a chance to compete for conferences titles, playoff births, etc. all while having the luxury of traveling no further than Oregon/Washington for their conference games.
I think this situation shows the exact reason it's so crucial BYU finds their way into a conference. Obviously, if they were in the Big 12 their conference road games would be further away than Utah's but it still gives BYU a chance to travel less and one loss doesn't doom your season.
