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 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 8 | 89 | 55 | 35 | 3 | .608 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | .700 | 7.61 | 3.79 | 2 | 3 | Georgia Tech |
| 2 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 89 | 48 | 40 | 3 | .544 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 6.26 | 4.50 | 3 | 3 | Colorado |
| 3 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 116 | 57 | 56 | 3 | .504 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .333 | 5.47 | 4.89 | 4 | 4 | Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State |
| 4 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 113 | 58 | 56 | 2 | .509 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 5.33 | 5.70 | 3 | 2 | Washington |
| 5 | Southwest Conference | 9 | 100 | 53 | 47 | 2 | .529 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | 3.06 | 2.21 | 3 | 3 | Texas |
| 6 | Southeastern Conference | 10 | 112 | 61 | 51 | 3 | .543 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 1.89 | 1.25 | 3 | 4 | Tennessee |
| 7 | Independent | 26 | 287 | 149 | 138 | 8 | .519 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | .563 | 0.23 | -0.51 | 6 | 5 | |
| 8 | Western Athletic Conference | 9 | 106 | 57 | 51 | 0 | .528 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | -0.87 | -1.18 | 1 | 1 | BYU |
| 9 | Big West Conference | 8 | 89 | 38 | 49 | 3 | .439 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -10.56 | -7.77 | 0 | 0 | San Jose State |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 9 | 98 | 44 | 50 | 5 | .470 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -13.61 | -11.97 | 0 | 0 | Central Michigan, Toledo |
Consensus All-Americans