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 | Southeastern Conference | 11 | 110 | 64 | 47 | 5 | .573 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | .667 | 13.41 | 11.10 | 2 | 3 | Alabama |
| 2 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 100 | 48 | 49 | 3 | .495 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 10.05 | 10.08 | 3 | 1 | Michigan State |
| 3 | Athletic Association of Western Universities | 8 | 81 | 47 | 30 | 4 | .605 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 9.58 | 7.08 | 1 | 2 | UCLA |
| 4 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 81 | 44 | 38 | 1 | .536 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .000 | 8.73 | 8.07 | 2 | 1 | Arkansas |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 80 | 37 | 43 | 0 | .463 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.46 | 4.33 | 0 | 0 | Clemson, North Carolina State | |
| 6 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 80 | 37 | 41 | 4 | .476 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 1.49 | 2.05 | 1 | 2 | Nebraska |
| 7 | Independent | 32 | 316 | 156 | 147 | 14 | .514 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -1.99 | -2.96 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Western Athletic Conference | 6 | 60 | 27 | 33 | 0 | .450 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3.86 | -2.43 | 0 | 0 | BYU | |
| 9 | Missouri Valley Conference | 5 | 49 | 24 | 26 | 0 | .480 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -4.78 | -4.34 | 0 | 0 | Tulsa |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 7 | 68 | 35 | 31 | 2 | .529 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -6.86 | -7.52 | 0 | 0 | Bowling Green, Miami (OH) | |
| 11 | Ivy Group | 8 | 72 | 37 | 30 | 5 | .549 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7.36 | -9.44 | 0 | 0 | Dartmouth | |
| 12 | Southern Conference | 9 | 89 | 42 | 48 | 0 | .467 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -10.71 | -9.67 | 0 | 0 | West Virginia |
Consensus All-Americans