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 | 10 | 101 | 61 | 42 | 2 | .590 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | .800 | 9.89 | 7.15 | 2 | 2 | Alabama, Georgia |
| 2 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 80 | 40 | 41 | 1 | .494 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 8.33 | 7.82 | 1 | 1 | SMU |
| 3 | Athletic Association of Western Universities | 8 | 81 | 43 | 38 | 0 | .531 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 3.92 | 2.63 | 2 | 1 | USC |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 99 | 45 | 50 | 5 | .475 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.12 | 4.36 | 2 | 2 | Michigan State |
| 5 | Independent | 32 | 317 | 188 | 128 | 6 | .593 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 1.84 | -1.21 | 2 | 3 | |
| 6 | Western Athletic Conference | 6 | 60 | 33 | 28 | 0 | .541 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.49 | 0.75 | 0 | 0 | Wyoming |
| 7 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 80 | 36 | 39 | 6 | .481 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 1.05 | 2.03 | 1 | 1 | Nebraska |
| 8 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 80 | 30 | 50 | 0 | .375 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.13 | 4.30 | 0 | 0 | Clemson | |
| 9 | Missouri Valley Conference | 5 | 50 | 25 | 25 | 0 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.25 | -2.29 | 0 | 0 | North Texas, Tulsa | |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 7 | 69 | 35 | 33 | 1 | .514 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4.41 | -5.44 | 0 | 0 | Miami (OH), Western Michigan | |
| 11 | Ivy Group | 8 | 72 | 37 | 35 | 0 | .514 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4.96 | -5.43 | 0 | 0 | Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton | |
| 12 | Southern Conference | 9 | 89 | 30 | 54 | 5 | .365 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -15.29 | -10.54 | 0 | 0 | East Carolina, William & Mary | |
Consensus All-Americans