BYU football has taken a notable step backwards since 2009, and much lower than Bronco's sophomore through 5th seasons. When BYU was in the same conference as TCU and Utah, BYU was ranked in the Top 25 for 4 years in a row. Max Hall's senior year concluded at #12, and they beat #3 OU and lost to #7 TCU.

Since then, BYU has only been ranked in 2011, when BYU played one of the lightest schedules in 50 years. The 7-6 in 2010 was against the same MWC they'd played for a decade. The schedules have improved since 2013, but BYU still plays a lot of AAC and MWC teams. BYU hasn't finished ranked since 2011 and hasn't won more than 8 games since then.

It's hard to argue that the schedule has gotten more difficult, especially playing teams like UConn and UVA, but you can objectively state that the records and rankings have dropped. From 2006 to 20009, BYU averaged a final ranking of #16 nationally and 11 wins. From 2010 to 2014, BYU has been unranked (except for #25 in 2011), and has won 8 wins. That's a dropoff the national scene and a loss of 3 games per year.