Of those, how many are blue blood programs?
Of the schools that are lower or mid-tier, like Utah, how many have won their division as often as Utah has the last 5 years?
Where BYU are perhaps the most naive, is this expectation that Utah should be embarrassed by not dominating the CFB landscape.
It'll be intriguing to see how BYU fares in the Big 12.
To your strange question, in a 6-team conference with head to head results as the core tie breaker, every game matters. But beating the top team is the moneyball since the win is equivalent to a 2-game lead.
By losing to Utah, USC, UCLA and ASU all took a huge back seat in the division race. If UCLA or ASU beat Utah, either one would be in the driver's seat or in serious contention.