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 | 110 | 68 | 48 | 0 | .586 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | .500 | 7.17 | 4.19 | 3 | 3 | Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee |
| 2 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 113 | 59 | 52 | 4 | .530 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 6.53 | 5.57 | 3 | 3 | USC |
| 3 | Southwest Conference | 9 | 99 | 54 | 47 | 1 | .534 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 5.86 | 4.60 | 2 | 4 | Arkansas |
| 4 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 90 | 48 | 43 | 2 | .527 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 3.60 | 2.54 | 2 | 2 | Duke, Virginia |
| 5 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 114 | 57 | 57 | 0 | .500 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 2.68 | 3.09 | 4 | 4 | Michigan |
| 6 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 88 | 45 | 45 | 0 | .500 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | 1.00 | 0.76 | 3 | 2 | Colorado |
| 7 | Independent | 25 | 277 | 147 | 126 | 11 | .537 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | .750 | 0.82 | -0.06 | 7 | 6 | |
| 8 | Western Athletic Conference | 9 | 106 | 51 | 54 | 4 | .486 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .000 | -0.58 | -0.58 | 1 | 1 | BYU |
| 9 | Big West Conference | 8 | 91 | 37 | 53 | 1 | .412 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -10.59 | -6.50 | 0 | 0 | Fresno State |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 9 | 99 | 38 | 56 | 6 | .410 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -17.65 | -13.90 | 0 | 0 | Ball State |
Consensus All-Americans