For sure, and I'm generally on the same page you are. I fully admit that having only two teams from the PAC-12 in the top 25 in November is terrible. It's laughable. But that part is out of Utah's hands. I think Utah is making efforts to schedule up in the future, as Baylor, Florida, Arkansas, and I think Houston have been added. I have two thoughts though, not that I have answers, they're just thoughts.

1) Would Utah be in the CFP race had they not lost to USC?
2) Most conferences do not schedule up in their OOC schedules. There are occasional games, like Auburn vs Oregon, but traditionally, Bama, Clemson, Ohio St, etc stay away from potentially difficult OOC opponents because they don't need to and the reward is not worth the risk. So getting them to schedule a team like Utah is not an easy task. It's much easier said than done. Especially given that most of those schools do not recruit the state of Utah. California and Texas do recruit Utah, and it has been much easier for BYU and Utah to schedule those teams accordingly.