Fair or not, Utah was a P5 team and BYU was generally seen as a G5 team (or G5-type independent).
So I sympathize with why Utah wouldn't want to end the season every year in a no-win matchup against a "lower" team. Same way you don't see Colorado playing Colorado St or Louisville playing Cincy.
So, as much as it sucked, I understood why Utah didn't want to do that. Just a factor of relative positioning in the College Football hierarchy. But now that's changed and I think it provides a great opportunity to push to dive back into that