For almost 40 of those years, it was by playing about 80% of your games against G5/FCS competition. For the last 7, it's been by playing only 55% against that level. BYU has consistently won about 40% of their P5 games. That means the additional P5 exposure in independence yields at least an additional loss a year. So the 9 wins drops to 8 wins.

That's the reality; that's the expectation based on very long term averages. That includes a Hall of Fame coach who has a stadium named after him and it includes another coach who is elsewhere but who yielded very similar W-L results.

So people can whine and complain about "only" 8 or 9 wins, but that's where this program has been for decades now and that's where the realistic expectations should be for it in the foreseeable future -- especially since the percentage of our games vs P5 teams has more than doubled as an independent.