Conference Summary
| Overall | Bowls | SRS | Polls | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Conference | Schs | G | W | L | Pct | G | W | L | Pct | SRS | SOS | Pre | Final | Champion |
| 1 | Big Ten Conference | 11 | 129 | 75 | 54 | .581 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | 9.67 | 6.79 | 4 | 3 | Ohio State, Penn State |
| 2 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 12 | 142 | 81 | 61 | .570 | 8 | 5 | 3 | .625 | 6.93 | 4.81 | 5 | 5 | Florida State |
| 3 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 116 | 66 | 50 | .569 | 5 | 3 | 2 | .600 | 6.61 | 4.03 | 3 | 4 | USC |
| 4 | Big 12 Conference | 12 | 142 | 85 | 57 | .599 | 8 | 5 | 3 | .625 | 6.20 | 3.03 | 4 | 4 | Texas |
| 5 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 140 | 79 | 61 | .564 | 6 | 3 | 3 | .500 | 4.61 | 2.46 | 5 | 5 | Georgia |
| 6 | Big East Conference | 8 | 92 | 48 | 44 | .522 | 4 | 1 | 3 | .250 | 1.18 | 0.18 | 2 | 2 | West Virginia |
| 7 | Independent | 4 | 46 | 21 | 25 | .457 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | -0.91 | 1.26 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | Mountain West Conference | 9 | 104 | 51 | 53 | .490 | 4 | 2 | 2 | .500 | -1.71 | -1.55 | 0 | 1 | Texas Christian |
| 9 | Conference USA | 12 | 140 | 67 | 73 | .479 | 6 | 3 | 3 | .500 | -5.14 | -4.13 | 0 | 0 | Tulsa |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 12 | 136 | 63 | 73 | .463 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | -5.99 | -4.39 | 0 | 0 | Akron |
| 11 | Western Athletic Conference | 9 | 106 | 46 | 60 | .434 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | -9.23 | -6.15 | 2 | 0 | Boise State, Nevada |
| 12 | Sun Belt Conference | 8 | 89 | 34 | 55 | .382 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | -14.39 | -9.42 | 0 | 0 | Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe |
Consensus All-Americans