Utah is the only P5 program in America that doesn't own it's own local market. They need more dominance than Salt Lake County to flex their muscle. This wasnt a good look when the fledgling PAC12 Networks were trying to take off.
This explains Hill breaking up the rivalry game and 80K's little stunt were pure PR moves to show the PAC12 they were the big dog in an attempt to bolster Utah's market wealth.
To be fair, BYU is a big program that would overshadow 1/2 the P5 school if parked 40 miles from them. Utah needs to get over this PAC12 insecurity and accept the situation; they are a regional school in the shadow of a flagship university of an international religion.