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 | 156 | 97 | 59 | .622 | 10 | 6 | 4 | .600 | 10.35 | 5.37 | 5 | 4 | Alabama |
| 2 | Big East Conference | 8 | 102 | 64 | 38 | .627 | 6 | 4 | 2 | .667 | 5.51 | 1.52 | 0 | 3 | Cincinnati |
| 3 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 12 | 153 | 82 | 71 | .536 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | 5.36 | 3.49 | 4 | 4 | Georgia Tech |
| 4 | Big 12 Conference | 12 | 154 | 88 | 66 | .571 | 8 | 4 | 4 | .500 | 5.33 | 2.25 | 5 | 3 | Texas |
| 5 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 127 | 68 | 59 | .535 | 7 | 2 | 5 | .286 | 4.84 | 3.76 | 3 | 2 | Oregon |
| 6 | Big Ten Conference | 11 | 139 | 80 | 59 | .576 | 7 | 4 | 3 | .571 | 3.54 | 0.82 | 3 | 4 | Ohio State |
| 7 | Mountain West Conference | 9 | 113 | 61 | 52 | .540 | 5 | 4 | 1 | .800 | -0.26 | -1.15 | 3 | 3 | Texas Christian |
| 8 | Independent | 3 | 38 | 21 | 17 | .553 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | -0.41 | -1.86 | 1 | 0 | |
| 9 | Western Athletic Conference | 9 | 115 | 57 | 58 | .496 | 4 | 2 | 2 | .500 | -4.26 | -3.24 | 1 | 1 | Boise State |
| 10 | Conference USA | 12 | 152 | 70 | 82 | .461 | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | -5.16 | -2.91 | 0 | 0 | East Carolina |
| 11 | Mid-American Conference | 13 | 163 | 70 | 93 | .429 | 5 | 1 | 4 | .200 | -8.86 | -6.14 | 0 | 1 | Central Michigan |
| 12 | Sun Belt Conference | 9 | 110 | 45 | 65 | .409 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | -8.87 | -5.00 | 0 | 0 | Troy |
Consensus All-Americans