I remember it was when we painfully watched Utah and TCU leapfrog us into BCS Bowl games, national prominence and p5 conference invites. Anything we accomplished was secondary to that. Oh and btw, when they leapfrogged us, they did a fair amount of curb-stomping of us to the degree that we looked like a crime scene in the aftermath. It wasn't even like we were that competitive with them.
Also, before Utah and TCU were quite ready for being main event, it was Colorado St and Bradlee Van Pelt who did the curb-stomping crushing us 3 out of 4 yrs from 2000-2003. The MWC years weren't all that much better.