Who you played, who you beat, comparable wins, losses, etc is all relative. You play the schedule you have. And yes, it is that simple.

BYU was doing things from 1974 through the 80's things no one had seen before and had more teams like TAMU, Georgia, UCLA, etc been on the board, there would be more wins to show over that period of time, especially had they come to Cougar Stadium, which they weren't.

Also, look at the Pac 12 today. They are mostly an Offensive Juggernaut, but they lack defense and I would argue many other good teams from other eras would be a tough challenge for most of them. My point here is we don't even know how good the PAC12 is and thus singling out a team like Utah or Oregon in 2014 based on their schedule wouldn't be cut and dry either.

Some of these "facts" of the past are weak.