In the decade of Independence, BYU has 17 P5 wins (1.7/season if you include 2020, 1.88 if you don't).
In the decade of MWC play before that, BYU had 13 P5 wins (1.3/season) even with the very down years of Crowton. Over the last 5 years of Mountain West play we were getting 1.7 P5 wins per season.
The real big difference is in the number of P5 games we've played and lost. In the Independence era, those 17 wins have come with 26 losses (39.5% win percentage). In the MWC, those 13 wins had 16 losses, meaning we won 45% of our games against AQ opponents.
Independence Era P5 Results
17-26 (.395)
1.88-2.88 per season (not including 2020 since schedules were weird)
Last Decade MWC AQ/P5 Results
13-16 (.448)
1.3-1.6 per season
MWC P5 Results
8-6 (.570)
1.6-1.2 per season
I'm not seeing how we've been better since going Independent. We get that extra quarter of a P5 win per season sure, but we're also losing an extra game and half each season to P5 opponents - that's not a great ratio. At some point, it's not about just playing lots of P5s, we also have to beat them.