BYU tanked with those losses to Hawaii and A&M.
By today’s standards, Houston’s SWC schedule was way better than BYU’s WAC schedule (no idea how most of these teams were perceived then): wins over Texas tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, SMU, Arkansas, TCU and ASU*.
*this was the game in Tokyo, Jeffacka. Houston won 62-45. Houston was banned from a bowl game that year, so maybe this was the consolation prize.