After Utah loses to USC:

• Utah does exactly what they did, winning the last 8 games of the season.
• USC loses to Washington and Notre Dame (having already lost to BYU) but wins every other game- INCLUDING Oregon. (That's the one variable changed.)
• Utah finishes 11-1.
• USC and Oregon both finish 9-3. Nevertheless, because Utah and USC are both 8-1 in conference, and USC has the tiebreaker.
• Oregon and USC play in Santa Clara...

Would Utah potentially be in a better spot right now?

To be clear- I am not suggesting that they would have been chosen for the playoff. Without a conference championship, their resume wasn't even close to that level. If they had won, I'm not certain their resume would have merited it.

But they'd STILL be ranked in the Top 10, right? Maybe an at-large Cotton Bowl invite?