You not only have to win, but you need to win big with style points.

Yup, that seems to be the way it is.

Given that the voters in ACC country haven't yet jumped on the BYU bandwagon, the Virginia game provides BYU with a huge opportunity to impress some people. BYU needs to beat the Cavaliers in impressive fashion, and that will help bump up the Cougars polling numbers in that portion of the country.

Most definitely. Virginia is a BIG game. Don't get me wrong, I'll simply take a win here. But if we are going to change national perception we need to beat the Vegas spread here (which I believe is at -16.5 today). People will notice then, or else they just have an axe to grind against BYU.

One more thing. My guess is that people leave BYU out of their polls more as a result of them not being a P5 conference member with a suspect schedule rather than any anti-LDS bias. As they continue to show it on the field, voters will come around.

I would generally agree. But what explains NR by Scott Nulph out in Laramie, Wyoming? What P5 bias does he have? Suspect just a old MW BYU hater here.