I think it was totally fine for Utah to want to preserve the PAC12. It was a decent conference. Travel was much easier. Utah had scrapped to make a place for itself there. No one would fault Utah for wanting to keep it together - possibly add some teams - and make it work.

Admittedly - there were probably some BYU fans who poked fun. But you have to give them a break - Utah's entry to the PAC12, complete with PAC12 tattoos and bumper stickers - gave BYU (as a rival) plenty of ammunition to go with the frustration and jealousy of being left out.

It became a problem with some very vocal Utah fans on social media couldn't just say "We love the PAC12. This is our conference. We'd love to preserve it and stay right here if we can". No - they had so say "The Big12 is a bad conference without any marque teams and it sucks. We don't want any part of that dumb truck stop conference. If anything, we're going to the Big10. But we'll never go to the Big12". Followed by voicing their opinions that the Big12 was such a bad conference that Utah would be the best team and run it from the moment they joined.

Now - I get that Utah admin didn't say that. And I get that most Utah fans may have even been happy to jump to the Big12 when the PAC12 folded. But thanks to your loud fans on social media, it was too late. Much of the Big12 fanbase had already formed their opinions. Here's a couple of posts for you to peruse to see what I'm talking about, since you apparently haven't seen it yourself on X.

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=34012037

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=34011772