2) even without Utah, the Mountain West is still a huge upgrade over the WAC.
Thing being is they needed Utah in the Mountain West to further the case for an automatic BCS bid, which is one reason to bolt from the WAC to the MWC. With Utah in it, the MWC would have had 4 teams that all have had strong, consistent seasons for the past few years. Easier to get that bid with 4 strong teams rather than 3.