It would have been nice for oregon to beat auburn.
That was probably the only winnable OOC game that mattered for national perception.
Good news is that we don’t play oregon until possibly the end of year when people will have mostly forgot the loss especially if they play well going forward.
The only other games ooc are probably losses or maybe 1 win. TTech at UA, ASU vs MSU, OU vs UCLA, Cal at uMiss, USC at ND, and ND at standford. All those games are probably loses, might get 1-2 upset wins but overall the pac12 did not seem like they will be raising the national perception of the conference “brand” this year.
Bad news is that we probably need BYU to have decent year to make that win look a little better. especially if we end up losing 1-2 games and still want to make a NY6 bowl. A long ways to go for that stuff to happen.
Good news is everyone in the pac12 looks beatable right now especially the south teams. We are definitely in a good position to win the south again.
NIU struggled for 3 quarters against illinois st. Game plan will certainly be almost identical to BYU, control the ball, feed moss, and limit big plays. Should be able to control the game from start to finish. Utes 35-NIU 17.