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 | 100 | 54 | 47 | 4 | .533 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 9.95 | 8.31 | 3 | 2 | Tennessee |
| 2 | Athletic Association of Western Universities | 8 | 81 | 43 | 36 | 2 | .543 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 6.40 | 5.49 | 2 | 2 | USC |
| 3 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 82 | 44 | 37 | 1 | .543 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 4.12 | 3.37 | 1 | 1 | Oklahoma |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 99 | 46 | 52 | 2 | .470 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 3.68 | 4.64 | 1 | 2 | Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue |
| 5 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 80 | 35 | 44 | 2 | .444 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 2.67 | 3.92 | 1 | 0 | Texas A&M |
| 6 | Western Athletic Conference | 6 | 61 | 32 | 29 | 1 | .524 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 1.84 | 1.47 | 0 | 1 | Wyoming |
| 7 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 79 | 35 | 45 | 0 | .438 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.47 | 2.94 | 0 | 0 | Clemson |
| 8 | Independent | 32 | 315 | 169 | 137 | 12 | .550 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | .600 | -0.10 | -1.68 | 2 | 2 | |
| 9 | Missouri Valley Conference | 5 | 48 | 24 | 22 | 2 | .521 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -0.54 | -2.80 | 0 | 0 | North Texas | |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 7 | 69 | 36 | 33 | 0 | .522 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4.53 | -5.19 | 0 | 0 | Ohio, Toledo | |
| 11 | Southern Conference | 8 | 79 | 43 | 34 | 2 | .557 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4.69 | -6.13 | 0 | 0 | West Virginia | |
| 12 | Ivy Group | 8 | 72 | 40 | 30 | 2 | .569 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -6.52 | -8.67 | 0 | 0 | Yale | |
Consensus All-Americans