1. Bowl games matter. They are routinely among the highest rated games for many of these programs including BYU. It shows how important they are. Even the lesser ones.
2. The network makes a huge difference. Being on ABC is such a boost for ratings no matter who you play.
3. Winning obviously is important. It adds juice in every game.
4. It’s not as important to play P5s as it is to play name brand P5s. UCF had better ratings for many of their conference games than they did against Maryland and Pitt. For BYU, playing LSU had 4 times as many eyeballs as the Cal game.