And that's fair on the different depth of the conferences.
The 2011-2013 PAC (headlined by Oregon, Stanford, USC) pretty clearly had a stronger top than the 2024 XII (headlined by Arizona, Utah, Kansas St, Oklahoma St)...but the depth of quality in the current Big 12 may be better.
The point remains that the PAC that Utah came into was considered a top league at the time, and it's easy to forget that with how far they've fallen.
Bottom line there's some factors that should allow us to be competitive in the Big 12 quicker than they were in the PAC12.
So if we go to a bowl game this year....that seems like it's supporting my argument. I think we can be a quality team faster than in year 4. But I'm not the one throwing the Utah example out there to suggest we won't be