Every school that is a member of the AAU (including Utah) is classified as an R1 Research University (as are all 12 member of the Pac 12). BYU is a tremendous school, extremely good at what it does. However, it is classified as an R2 Research University.

This is how they classify between R1 and R2

"Institutions that conferred at least 20 research/scholarship doctorates in 2016-17 and reported at least $5 million in total research expenditures were assigned to one of two categories based on a measure of research activity. The research activity index includes the following correlates of research activity: research & development (R&D) expenditures in science and engineering; R&D expenditures in non-S&E fields; S&E research staff (postdoctoral appointees and other non-faculty research staff with doctorates); doctoral conferrals in humanities, social science, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, and in other fields (e.g., business, education, public policy, social work)."

It's not religious bigotry. It's about research facilities and the amount of people doing active research at that school, especially in STEM fields. That's the difference between R1 and R2