How about this - Tom Holmoe knows that Cougar fans will throw a fit if BYU is essentially playing a Conference USA schedule as an independent. To fix that, he busts his tail to build SOS and schedule name-brand programs. Unfortunately, most of the good teams have a full slate of conference games later in the year. Beggars can't be choosers, so Tom Holmoe negotiates for games with these teams whenever and wherever he can get them - which often means that they play during the first month of the year and/or at "neutral" sites that favor the bigger team.

I believe that any program with a athletics director as tenacious as Tom Holmoe could get an out of conference schedule similar to BYU's. They just don't have to, because their conference affiliation guarantees that they'll face a few good teams that will flesh out their schedule.