Call me old school, but I used to buy BYU Football homegame tickets, and used to even travel to games in the Intemountain West, when we were in a conference.

Today, I can't articulate to my kids, my wife or any family I used to go with WHY "this game is important at our level of play" or WHY "I would really like to beat XYZ team because we have friends/relatives/acquaintences that live in that town" or that "XYZ [competing team] has my kids friends playing for that team, so we would really like to beat them." 

I used to organize my weekly schedule around games and prioritize going to the game, or at least invite all competing team fans over to watch the game.  I can't do that anymore b/c the games have no natural geographic rivalry, nobody I associate with globally went to these schools, there is no conference title on the line, there are no "we got you that time, let's see if we can get you this time" friendly competitive aspects going on city to city, fanbase to fanbase.  

I used to have hope that my kids would go to BYU one day, but now you have to be an international student or from outside the state of Utah to get in, or at least have an ACT score of 30 something. So, in short I try to get my family to go to a BYU game and it's like I'm asking them to go to some random college game that they have no affiliation with...both at the opponent level and increasingly at the BYU level. 

I think if we were in a conference, we could at least play games against schools my friends kids go to, or that my kids go to, or that we are familiar with, or that my neighbors are alumni of, and more.

That's my $.02. Love BYU Football, but it seems to be fading, and sadly this is not related to the current coaching staff or the team. It is related to not being in a conference.  The saving grace for all things BYU with me is becoming Women's Soccer, Womens Volleyball, Men's Volleyball.