Conference Summary
| Overall | Bowls | SRS | Polls | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Conference | Schs | G | W | L | Pct | G | W | L | Pct | SRS | SOS | Pre | Final | Champion |
| 1 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 127 | 72 | 55 | .567 | 7 | 2 | 5 | .286 | 7.74 | 4.78 | 4 | 2 | USC, Washington State |
| 2 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 154 | 89 | 65 | .578 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | 6.32 | 3.58 | 5 | 3 | Georgia |
| 3 | Big 12 Conference | 12 | 157 | 90 | 67 | .573 | 8 | 5 | 3 | .625 | 6.12 | 3.22 | 5 | 4 | Oklahoma |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 11 | 141 | 82 | 59 | .582 | 7 | 5 | 2 | .714 | 5.88 | 3.42 | 5 | 4 | Iowa, Ohio State |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 9 | 119 | 66 | 53 | .555 | 7 | 4 | 3 | .571 | 5.56 | 3.67 | 2 | 4 | Florida State |
| 6 | Big East Conference | 8 | 102 | 58 | 44 | .569 | 5 | 3 | 2 | .600 | 3.92 | 1.86 | 2 | 4 | Miami (FL) |
| 7 | Independent | 6 | 71 | 35 | 36 | .493 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -2.87 | -2.35 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | Mountain West Conference | 8 | 100 | 46 | 55 | .455 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | -3.63 | -2.17 | 0 | 0 | Colorado State |
| 9 | Conference USA | 10 | 125 | 57 | 68 | .456 | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | -4.37 | -3.20 | 1 | 1 | Cincinnati, Texas Christian |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 14 | 171 | 80 | 91 | .468 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | -6.82 | -5.18 | 1 | 1 | Marshall |
| 11 | Western Athletic Conference | 10 | 125 | 56 | 69 | .448 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .667 | -7.21 | -4.60 | 0 | 1 | Boise State |
| 12 | Sun Belt Conference | 7 | 85 | 33 | 53 | .384 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | -9.28 | -4.61 | 0 | 0 | North Texas |
Consensus All-Americans