BYU built its brand on winning, and winning a lot. BYU was ranked year-in and year-out for the better part of 20 years and they did it by not exposing themselves to many losses. Now this wasn't by choice, it was determined by the conference they played in at the time. But the fact is BYU beat up on a lot of subpar opponents and then won their fair share of games against respected programs to build enough of a reputation to garner pollsters' respect. The result was high rankings, individual accolades, and what we now refer to as the glory years. And we saw it again in BYU's final 5 years in the MWC. So its hard to argue against the fact that the philosophy worked.

But that doesn't mean Jarom's right.

Since 1996, the following teams have been given the opportunity to play in Power/BCS conferences (not counting 2013 AAC): Temple, Rutgers, Utah, TCU, UConn, South Florida, Cincinnati & Louisville.

BYU has been a good program for the better part of 50 years and to this day none of those programs has the history and tradition of BYU. And after a while beating up on a bunch of nobodies feels empty and rankings don't mean as much. You want the same opportunity that so many other programs that are beneath you in the pecking order of CFB have gotten. So BYU went Independent for two primary reasons:
1-Play the type of schedule a program of BYU's caliber deserves to play even if the power conferences won't invite you to the club.
2-Make the games easily accessible to a national fan base on the best platform possible.

The drawbacks of Independence have been discussed at nauseum. Many of those wins against quality opponents during the glory years happened in good bowl games that were the result of winning conference championships. The bowl situation as an Independent is bad. Not playing for a conference championship makes the season much less interesting while the rest of the country is in conference play. And once BYU has two losses, there's not much to play for (which is every year).

Now here's the truth for Jarom: BYU actually played the schedule you're suggesting in 2011. We had a gaudy record, but because we knew the team really wasn't that good nobody really cared. Late season wins against Idaho & New Mexico St had tons of empty seats. We finished 10-3 and snuck into a Top 25 poll after the bowl win against Tulsa. But as a fan base we knew we weren't a Top 25 team, which is why nobody ever brings up that season when talking about the good BYU teams of years past.

The fact is that there are really only two paths BYU should consider right now for its football program:
1-Continue as an Independent and prove yourself against the most competitive schedules possible, with 5-6 P5s, regional rivals & the best G5s they can get.
2-If a P5 invite doesn't come after the next round of TV deals/realignment, join the AAC with Boise & SDSU to play in the most competitive conference you can, play for a conference title, and gain access to better bowl games including the NY6.

When you compare the different scheduling options, it clearly makes no sense to play Jarom's ideal schedule. Side by side, the AAC schedule is actually more interesting and doesn't come with all the baggage of Independence. If BYU is going to remain Independent they have to pursue a top flight schedule because otherwise the negatives of Independence far outweigh the positives. Here is an example of what a standard schedule would look like for each:

Jarom Indy: Utah, Penn St, Oregon St, Boise St, SDSU, Houston, ECU, UNLV, Utah St, UMass, Texas St, Idaho St (7 quality games)
AAC West: Utah, Penn St, Boise St, Cincinnati, Houston, Navy, SDSU, SMU, USF, Tulsa, Utah St, UNLV (9 quality games)
Indy: Utah, Penn St, Oregon St, Syracuse, Baylor, Stanford, Boise St, SDSU, Utah St, Houston, UNLV, Idaho St (10 quality games)