This change to BYU's honor code has nothing to do with athletics. It coincides with a brand new General Handbook for the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its worldwide membership and leadership.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org...k-2020.pdf
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org...l-handbook
As much as the new handbook directly affects the Church's leadership and membership in Utah...and the students and leadership at BYU...the new handbook will be translated into more than 50 languages and heavily used in Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe, as well as throughout North America.
Here's a link to the new General Handbook:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stud...w?lang=eng
My opinion - the honor code revisions help to encourage and focus on reaching out with love, kindness, respect and inclusiveness to everyone and should promote better understanding and communication in our communities. Great revisions! But, I don't think BYU's P5 chances increase with the honor code revisions. The Church will not change the Law of Chastity or alter temple ordinances to permit same-sex couples to be married in the temple. As mentioned, that is a non-starter with many university presidents and boards of trustees.
FWIW, I believe the WCC is a great home for BYU. While BYU's student-body and resources dwarf most of its conference mates, the institutions and student bodies share huge common ground. I attended BYU undergrad and a WCC grad school, so I have direct experience here.
And, independent football is a fine alternative to the football conference options actually available to BYU. Of course we would prefer P5 membership, but BYU's current football mediocrity has more to do with coaching and not being able to beat its rival Utah or consistently beat middle-tier *G5* schools. In the last 5 years, BYU football has road wins over Wisconsin, Tennessee, Michigan State, Nebraska, and Arizona (x2), and home wins over USC, Mississippi State and Boise State...and competitive losses to UCLA, West Virginia, Missouri, and Cal.
But, we are 0-for-9 against the Ewetes and have recent losses to NIU, Toledo, ECU, and UMass. THOSE games are BYU's biggest problem...not its conference affiliation.