Conference Summary
| Overall | Bowls | SRS | Polls | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Conference | Schs | G | W | L | T | Pct | G | W | L | T | Pct | SRS | SOS | Pre | Final | Champion |
| 1 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 90 | 46 | 37 | 7 | .550 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 12.14 | 10.73 | 3 | 2 | Illinois |
| 2 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 80 | 45 | 36 | 2 | .554 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 11.61 | 9.79 | 2 | 1 | Texas |
| 3 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 119 | 66 | 48 | 10 | .573 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 9.71 | 7.38 | 2 | 3 | Ole Miss |
| 4 | Athletic Association of Western Universities | 6 | 60 | 25 | 34 | 2 | .426 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 5.60 | 7.77 | 2 | 0 | Washington |
| 5 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 78 | 39 | 39 | 0 | .500 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 4.38 | 5.28 | 1 | 2 | Nebraska |
| 6 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 81 | 34 | 44 | 4 | .439 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 0.01 | 2.68 | 0 | 0 | North Carolina, North Carolina State |
| 7 | Independent | 33 | 316 | 152 | 153 | 13 | .498 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | -2.95 | -2.86 | 1 | 2 | |
| 8 | Ivy Group | 8 | 71 | 40 | 28 | 3 | .585 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3.04 | -6.03 | 0 | 0 | Dartmouth, Princeton | |
| 9 | Western Athletic Conference | 6 | 59 | 31 | 28 | 0 | .525 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3.56 | -4.47 | 0 | 0 | New Mexico | |
| 10 | Missouri Valley Conference | 5 | 48 | 24 | 24 | 0 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -6.77 | -6.64 | 0 | 0 | Cincinnati, Wichita State | |
| 11 | Southern Conference | 9 | 87 | 36 | 46 | 5 | .443 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7.95 | -6.14 | 0 | 0 | Virginia Tech | |
| 12 | Mid-American Conference | 7 | 67 | 31 | 32 | 4 | .493 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -11.79 | -11.58 | 0 | 0 | Ohio | |
Consensus All-Americans