What are physical attributes of the players.
How much depth do you have at each position by top talented players.
How the strength and conditioning program developing or hindering the players.
How many top rated coaches do you have.
How much experience do the replacements have when the starter gets injured? Kind of like the question above.

There is some correlation to the numbers and conference affiliation but not significant. Meaning, the OTHER variables would be more meaningful. You could argue chicken and egg but there are plenty of BYU teams that have overcome their conference affiliation and succeeded. Clearly the first year of Big XII was a train wreck but was that coaching? Was it talent? Was it something else? Inexperienced QB? (yes on this one).