Conference Summary
| Overall | Bowls | SRS | Polls | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Conference | Schs | G | W | L | Pct | G | W | L | Pct | SRS | SOS | Pre | Final | Champion |
| 1 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 134 | 86 | 54 | .614 | 6 | 5 | 1 | .833 | 10.68 | 7.43 | 5 | 6 | Tennessee |
| 2 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 113 | 68 | 48 | .586 | 6 | 5 | 1 | .833 | 9.41 | 6.37 | 3 | 4 | UCLA, Washington State |
| 3 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 9 | 100 | 58 | 45 | .563 | 4 | 3 | 1 | .750 | 6.50 | 4.31 | 3 | 3 | Florida State |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 11 | 129 | 72 | 60 | .545 | 7 | 2 | 5 | .286 | 4.80 | 3.15 | 6 | 4 | Michigan |
| 5 | Big 12 Conference | 12 | 135 | 75 | 65 | .536 | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | 2.15 | 1.48 | 4 | 5 | Nebraska |
| 6 | Conference USA | 7 | 79 | 37 | 42 | .468 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | -3.12 | -1.82 | 0 | 1 | Southern Mississippi |
| 7 | Western Athletic Conference | 16 | 184 | 90 | 97 | .481 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | -4.03 | -2.89 | 1 | 1 | Colorado State |
| 8 | Big East Conference | 8 | 90 | 41 | 52 | .441 | 4 | 0 | 4 | .000 | -5.12 | -2.94 | 2 | 1 | Syracuse |
| 9 | Mid-American Conference | 12 | 135 | 62 | 73 | .459 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -6.30 | -4.36 | 0 | 0 | Marshall |
| 10 | Independent | 9 | 101 | 45 | 57 | .441 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -7.09 | -4.80 | 1 | 0 | |
| 11 | Big West Conference | 6 | 66 | 26 | 41 | .388 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -10.80 | -7.92 | 0 | 0 | Nevada, Utah State |
Consensus All-Americans