Winning regularly doesn't do a lot of good unless it rises to a level of national prominence. And that's what TCU and Utah had going for them.

That said, in the decade before Utah and TCU were tabbed to move up to the P5 level, they also did have the best winning percentage of any teams in the MWC by a fair margin, so it definitely doesn't hurt.

From 2001-2010
TCU won 78.4% of games
Utah won 74.2% of games
BYU won 65.1% of games

Over this last decade (2011-2020) BYU has won 60% of our games - 71.4% vs G5, 39.5% against P5/ND.
For comparison, over that same time span Boise St has won 78% of their games, while UCF has won 65% and Cincy has won 64%.

We need a couple more seasons like last year to both bump up the winning percentage and to be in the national conversation a few more times. Doesn't have to be done the same way (against a watered-down schedule), but one way or another we need a few more big seasons in rapid succession. We can't just assume we're better than these other candidates, we have to prove it on the field and particularly on the big stage.