I've seen some folks on here say that the 1996 football team was better than 2024. I wasn't paying attention to football back in 1996 so maybe people on here can tell me why they think that is. Here are a list of their notable wins and losses.
1996
Wins
Kansas State (9-3) Finished #17
Wyoming (10-2) Finished #22
Losses
Washington (9-3) Finished #16
2024
Wins
SMU (11-3) Will likely finish top 20
Colorado (9-4) I'm guessing they end up ranked but not sure
KSU (9-4) Have an outside shot of ending up ranked
Losses
Kansas (7-5) Not ranked
Arizona State (11-3) Will be ranked top 20, maybe top 15
The major differences I see are 1) the Kansas loss looks really bad but 2) I'm assuming that BYU's overall schedule was tougher in 2024. To me it looks pretty even. I wonder if some give the edge to 1996 because we ended the season ranked #5 whereas we'll end up ranked ~#12-15 this year. I wonder, however, if the losses in 2024 had happened earlier into the season whether that would have affected our final ranking.
Also, I didn't include Texas A&M in the list above because they finished 6-6.