BYU is not a top-tier research institution. Lots of other schools in backwater areas are. Regardless of what Wikipedia says, BYU isn't a "research institution" in the sense that most people mean when they use the term (i.e.: an R1 institution or a member of the AAU).

That's okay. BYU's mission seems to be something else (a focus on undergrad students instead of on graduates), and that's something of which to be proud.

It's also true that research status is not the reason that BYU's struggled to get into a P5 conference. BYU shot themselves in the foot with the Big XII the first time; religious bigotry sunk them with the Pac-10 and the Big XII the second time around.