no post-season tournament.

if in men's basketball last season, utah had beat BYU in the NCAA tournament to advance to the sweet 16, so BYU's season ended at the round of 32, I would with confidence argue that Utah had a better season.

(I guess that scenario would have depended on utah winning the pac-12 tournament because they were not a bubble team)

A better example might be Utah State. BYU beat them 68-64 in the regular season, but Utah State had got the auto bid from the MWC. So hypothetically if BYU and USU faced off in the round of 32 of the NCAA tournament and if USU won that game, I with confidence would say that USU had the better season.

Oh by the way, if utah beat BYU in volleyball because they exploited some weaknesses in BYU, maybe it was coaching that helped them identify those weaknesses to exploit. Maybe BYU should have developed a strategy or gameplan for that game to attack some of the weaknesses that Utah had.