Geographically, if you want to bridge the chasm between the current B1G and USC/UCLA, there's only a few options - Kansas, Kansas St, Colorado, BYU, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona St

So if you're the B1G and want an AAU school (Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona) who isn't abjectly horrible at football and connects your geography...well that's pretty much Utah.

So I'm sure they've looked at Utah's profile and said "Huh, it's a shame that Utah isn't a bigger market and would bring more $ - if they were, they'd fit well"

But that's far different from actually wanting Utah as it stands. If Utah had an LA type market? They'd already be gone. But neither Utah nor BYU would have been ok the outside so long in that type of market either