putting a schedule together given the situation. But in no version of reality could anyone with a straight face say BYU's "top-10 ranked D" (or O) was actually top 10 any more than someone can say ND was the #5 team in the country after the first week of games. There simply wasn't enough data to substantiate that ranking.

Same for BYU in 2020. I realize there were more games, but if BYU had kept the original schedule (below), there's no way either the D or the O pads their stats as they did against weak competition.

@ Utah - @ Navy
Michigan State - Troy
@ Arizona State
@ Minnesota - La Tech
Utah State - UTSA
Missouri - Texas State
Houston - kept @
@ Northern Illinois - Western Kentucky
@ Boise State - kept
San Diego State - kept
North Alabama - kept
@ Stanford - @ Coastal Carolina

Stats are useful, but not in a vacuum. 2020 was a vacuum. Claiming it as anything other than that for comparative purposes is a bit disingenuous.