You talk about it like going .500 in B12 play is a bad thing...it's not.
If BYU takes 12-13 OOC wins into conference play and then goes .500 posting a 9-9 B12 record, they'll be either 21-10 or 22-9 on the season going into the conference tournament, which is difficult to do in the B12 and would be rewarded with a good seeding for the NCAA tournament. That's what I would call a successful season.
BYU making the NCAA tournament on a regular basis is a good mark of success and anything beyond that (high seeds, high rankings, deep NCAA runs, etc.) is just the cherry on top.