Yes they would be doing better.Are you saying if Utah were in the Pac 12 they'd be doing well? They were 8-5 last season, as was USC and both teams are worse this year. Washington and AZ are quite literally different teams than last year.
This reminds me of the 'Nebraska got bad because they went to the Big Ten' narrative.
They're just not very good.
I'm having fun watching the Big 12 but it's not exactly a murderer's row.
Nebraska lost their recruiting ground and since you could not pay players allegedly their access to Texas dried up.
Nebraska also hit their first year of Big 10 play 7-1, then a couple of 5-3 years