Is the problem losing?
Or is the problem fan apathy?

I'm sure someone will say "they're intimately related if not the same!" but in fact that's not true, big picture. Lots programs go through losing periods, bad coaches, "bottom of the barrel" decades, etc.

But I'm going to argue there's a big difference in the fan experience between bottom of the barrel in a conference and bottom of the barrel in independence. That difference is that in a conference, the other teams in the conference are also, to a lesser extent, yours in some way. Even the rivals—they're "your" rivals by virtue of being in your conference.

There is a level of interest in following the other teams, even if it's less than the interest that you have in following your own team. There is a larger sense of context and drama about the "story" of a season and it involves more characters/teams and more land and territory than is true when you're on your own.

I think it's a lot easier to maintain a baseline level of fan interest and attendance through inevitable down periods if you're in a conference. Some anecdotes:

(1) When we went to the PAC-12, the first 3-4 years were hard. Hard for me as a fan to feel viscerally interested in. Yes, we got to play USC and Oregon and Stanford and we had a shot at the big stuff. And it was easy to know that should be exciting. And sometimes it was... But not in the same way. Because there was no backstory with these teams. No history of what they did to us LAST year and what our relationship to them was. No sense of what each coach's and team's personality was like. It was so transactional.

It took until probably year five for the old "football feelings" to come back. All the standards—the team that you have grudging respect for. The team that you hate because they always beat you when they shouldn't. The team with the stupid fanbase. The away game you look forward to traveling to that starts to feel like a yearly tradition. Listen to ESPN's NCAAF boilerplate sometime. College football isn't just about the games and the stars. It's about the tradition and the pageantry. Your fans aren't getting that.

(2) I have a much older friend and semi-mentor in Utah Valley who was a decades-long season ticket holder at LES. He gave up his tickets a couple years ago, I found out this spring. He tells me that it's been fun in a way to see BYU play the bluebloods on television, but when it comes down to it, he really misses playing the old familiar teams and going to watch them in games, and that after independence it just didn't feel the same. In his words, there was a community feeling about the conference and everyone looking for respect together, and also trying to match each other, that's not there now. I'm betting that with a conference, that could come back in a few years. But without one, I doubt it.

So whether independence is causing the problem depends on what you think the problem is.

If it's not winning enough, no, I doubt independence is directly causing that right now, week to week.

If it's flagging institutional and fan dedication and investment, which could ultimately contribute to not winning enough down the line, and to making it harder to make the case for the program or for the need for real changes to right the program, it might be a pretty big contributing factor.

I'm on the outside looking in on this one, but from where I sit, I think going back to a conference would give you guys something to build on. Teams to work toward consistently beating again and benchmarks that stay more the same year after year than they do right now, so that they can actually provide you with some sense of how you're actually doing, a list of known frenemies to conquer and for fans to feel good about conquering, a chip on your shoulder again about the injustices of being stuck in G5 and something to prove to the nation, and of course, something to continue to vie for (conference position and bowl game tier) even in down years. Plus, something to use to sell yourself to recruits as a "program on the upswing" if you're gaining ground, rather than a program stuck purgatory without a clear context in the national story things stand now.