BYU has a much better early game schedule than most teams due to independence. I would expect good teams in playoff, NY6, and conference championship contention to get huge boosts later in the season that BYU won’t get.
However, we should also be better this year with better later games with Notre Dame, Arkansas, and Stanford.
Also, one team never makes a good matchup. You need two good teams to be interesting. This has hampered us all through independence. It should be very enlightening to see the new Big12 rankings with all the new members.