When a P12 team loses to BYU, or Boise, or Hawaii, or Portland State, it means nothing because the P12 team just had a bad day, or because lowly G5 "mid-major" teams always get up for P5 games because it's their bowl game, or fill-in-the-blank-excuse.

But when that same not-very-good P12 team beats another P12 team, then it just shows how incredibly competitive the P12 is top-to-bottom, and how it's so freaking hard to win in that conference because they are really just as good as (or better than) the SEC, and thus it's expected that the P12 teams will beat up on each other because of their inherent awesomeness.