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 Eight Conference | 8 | 80 | 44 | 39 | 0 | .530 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 9.90 | 8.87 | 2 | 3 | Kansas, Oklahoma |
| 2 | Southeastern Conference | 10 | 101 | 60 | 38 | 8 | .604 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | .500 | 9.39 | 6.89 | 4 | 5 | Georgia |
| 3 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 80 | 41 | 38 | 4 | .518 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 8.86 | 8.35 | 2 | 3 | Arkansas, Texas |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 100 | 50 | 50 | 0 | .500 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 7.19 | 7.85 | 4 | 3 | Ohio State |
| 5 | Pacific-8 Conference | 8 | 82 | 42 | 34 | 6 | .549 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 6.34 | 4.57 | 3 | 2 | USC |
| 6 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 80 | 32 | 46 | 2 | .413 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.17 | 4.35 | 0 | 0 | North Carolina State | |
| 7 | Independent | 31 | 309 | 173 | 135 | 4 | .561 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | -1.30 | -2.85 | 4 | 3 | |
| 8 | Ivy Group | 8 | 72 | 38 | 32 | 2 | .542 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.94 | -4.53 | 0 | 0 | Harvard, Yale | |
| 9 | Western Athletic Conference | 8 | 81 | 34 | 46 | 1 | .426 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -5.68 | -3.52 | 1 | 0 | Wyoming |
| 10 | Missouri Valley Conference | 6 | 60 | 27 | 32 | 1 | .458 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -6.54 | -4.59 | 0 | 0 | Memphis | |
| 11 | Mid-American Conference | 7 | 69 | 32 | 35 | 3 | .479 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -7.58 | -8.21 | 0 | 1 | Ohio |
| 12 | Southern Conference | 7 | 69 | 25 | 45 | 0 | .357 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -12.79 | -8.02 | 0 | 0 | Richmond |
Consensus All-Americans