success, then BYU would have been called up in the 80's/90's; Boise State would have been in the 00's. UCF would have been added to a P5 conference 5 years ago. Clemson would have been in the SEC 8 years ago.

Winning the Pac 12 twice, having top 40 recruiting classes, and being ranked doesn't guarantee you a seat if only 4 power conferences survive. Playing a mid-level conference opponent and having over 2M people watching does. Utah typically gets ~1M viewers in those situations. The recent SEC and Big Ten additions have been doing this for decades (Texas/OU/USC/UCLA are big TV draws).

Finishing ranked only matters if you can prove YOU draw eyeballs, not the game you're playing in. Utah is a long way from proving that.