BYU, which is neither P5 nor G5, isn't eligible for the G5 automatic bid for teams ranked highly enough by CFP. BYU could be well within the top 10 of the CFP final pre-bowl rankings and I think the committee would still find a way to bump them out.

This year, the committee bumped BYU down to just outside the border of where a G5 school would automatically qualify for a NY6. It's merely window dressing, or media eye candy, and it helps the committee to justify excluding a team like BYU, which has accomplished so much this year. But, again, if even BYU had remained with the top 12, or even moved higher, the committee simply wouldn't invite a non-P5 and non-G5 program to the huge revenue machines that these bowls are. (Notre Dame is an exception, for obvious reasons.)

I don't think it has anything to do with prejudice against BYU or its sponsoring church. It's about keeping as much $ as these massive bowls create within the coffers of the college football cartels. BYU, as an independent, hasn't been a part of the cartels for a decade.

That changes on July 1, 2023.

Lastly, independence has been much better for BYU football than staying with MWC, or joining the AAC. If BYU had stayed in the MWC, or had joined another G5 conference, I am not convinced that the invitation to the Big 12 happens. Independence, in spite of its end-of-season realities and limitations, allowed BYU to showcase its value and potential in a way that playing in the MWC or the AAC would not have. Good for Houston, and Cincy, and UCF for jumping from the AAC to the Big 12. I don't think BYU is necessarily joining them if they had been in that conference or had stayed in the MWC.