2 more undefeated seasons with national championship possibility. The 80s were great enough. Baylor 83 maybe delivers another NC and certainly makes 84 less controversial. 96 would be an NC argument and the best finish, maybe best BYU team ever.

Improving the 00s by delivering three top 5 finishes in 01 / 06 / 09 helps the legacy extend more smoothly with dominant seasons spreading 30+ years. Easier to argue we've had multiple strong decades and now a down decade and will come back, than for some to say we only had one great decade ever.

specific reasoning for 00 games:
01 still has the bowl loss, but 12-1 is good for a top 10 finish and that loss to Hawaii was the worst. being 12-0 but losing a bowl game without Staley would be a much better "what might have been" than losing 2 without him.

06 with a BC win, that could have been a top 5 finish. the only loss would have been getting jobbed in the first game on the road @Arizona by a GW-winning FG after the phantom PI, etc. home-cooking. With all the PAC officiating stuff, history would look very kindly on that. The drubbing of Oregon in the bowl was a great ending.

09 TCU — I could probably substitute various Utah games here for emotional reasons — but for the sake of the program, beating TCU 09, even with the ugly FSU loss that year, probably lands that team in the top 10.