1. Understood. But If USC, UW, Oregon are gone. That means the other 7-8 are still in the conference with Utah. They have the same "advantages" yet Utah is still consistently winning far more than them.

So even though this group allegedly loses the same "advantage", somehow Utah will fall below them? I don't think so.

2. Same thing. If the move is to the super conferences, the 2nd tier of schools on the outside will all also be no longer P5. That's most of Utah's direct competition today. Utah will still keep losing high level recruits to the big boys. So no change. But Utah's surge in recruiting of late is tied to coaching stability, winning and to NFL success. Neither of those factors go away in the new conference.

The question is who would suddenly take Utah recruits without P5? How would Utah go down if most of the west is also non-P5 but lack the same compelling narrative Utah can boast?

I don't see how Utah doesn't consistently out recruit most of the conference.

If Utah loses P5 status, the only recruits Utah will lose to is to BYU. BYU fans make a big deal out of this, but that's because the BYU pool is small. Outside the elite recruits, the delta between a Utah target and the next man below him is pretty small.

I get your point but this is what BYU fans always said about Utah. When we moved to the MW, BYU fans thought Utah would be at the bottom. After 2004, BYU fans convinced themselves Urban was lightning in a bottle. After 2008, BYU fans really started to get nervous.

When BYU beat Utah in 2009, it was the ultimate proof point that BYU was the better program. It erased Utah's progress. It was weird actually. Because Utah had a freshman QB in a rebuild against BYU"s seniors and BYU barely won, at home, in OT.

It was more a symbol that Utah was reloading more and more and becoming a dominant force in the MW. Even in a rebuild year, on par with BYU's best team in a decade.

Of course, BYU fans never thought Utah would ever be considered by the Pac, no one cared about Utah outside SLC, etc. Then once Utah got invited, they were going to be bottom of the barrel, etc. etc.

We've heard it for 20 years.

If you remove the elite, the only people who have consistently beat Utah, and the only ones even close to the NFL pipeline Utah has created...I don't see how suddenly OSU, WSU, CU, BYU, CSU start beating Utah consistently when they couldn't beat Utah now or back in the MW days when they were even.