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 | 111 | 67 | 44 | 5 | .599 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | .500 | 8.91 | 5.64 | 3 | 4 | Florida |
| 2 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 111 | 62 | 51 | 0 | .549 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 4.14 | 2.87 | 3 | 3 | USC |
| 3 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 88 | 46 | 40 | 4 | .533 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.86 | 3.04 | 1 | 2 | Maryland |
| 4 | Southwest Conference | 9 | 99 | 55 | 47 | 2 | .538 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 3.54 | 2.34 | 2 | 1 | Houston, SMU |
| 5 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 90 | 43 | 43 | 5 | .500 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 2.98 | 2.86 | 2 | 3 | Nebraska, Oklahoma |
| 6 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 117 | 56 | 59 | 2 | .487 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | .167 | 2.86 | 3.34 | 3 | 2 | Ohio State |
| 7 | Independent | 21 | 233 | 122 | 111 | 6 | .523 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | .438 | 2.79 | 2.07 | 6 | 4 | |
| 8 | Western Athletic Conference | 9 | 104 | 53 | 51 | 2 | .509 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -0.13 | -0.56 | 0 | 1 | BYU |
| 9 | Pacific Coast Athletic Association | 8 | 92 | 45 | 47 | 0 | .489 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -5.83 | -4.80 | 0 | 0 | Cal State Fullerton |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 10 | 111 | 50 | 55 | 6 | .477 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -8.86 | -7.80 | 0 | 0 | Toledo |
| 11 | Missouri Valley Conference | 7 | 78 | 32 | 46 | 0 | .410 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -13.25 | -10.94 | 0 | 0 | Tulsa | |
Consensus All-Americans