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 | Southeastern Conference | 10 | 112 | 72 | 40 | 5 | .637 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | .500 | 12.90 | 8.14 | 3 | 5 | Alabama |
| 2 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 90 | 51 | 39 | 0 | .567 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 11.04 | 8.63 | 2 | 2 | Oklahoma |
| 3 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 88 | 45 | 41 | 5 | .522 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .167 | 7.70 | 7.46 | 3 | 3 | Baylor |
| 4 | Big Ten Conference | 10 | 111 | 55 | 53 | 3 | .509 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 7.27 | 7.24 | 2 | 3 | Michigan, Ohio State |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 7 | 80 | 42 | 37 | 1 | .531 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .167 | 6.86 | 5.97 | 2 | 2 | Maryland |
| 6 | Pacific-8 Conference | 8 | 89 | 40 | 43 | 6 | .483 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 4.43 | 5.16 | 2 | 1 | USC |
| 7 | Mid-American Conference | 6 | 65 | 38 | 26 | 2 | .591 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -2.23 | -5.83 | 0 | 1 | Miami (OH) |
| 8 | Pacific Coast Athletic Association | 5 | 57 | 33 | 22 | 2 | .596 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.73 | -7.01 | 0 | 0 | San Diego State | |
| 9 | Independent | 37 | 403 | 185 | 217 | 4 | .461 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .833 | -3.86 | -2.10 | 4 | 3 | |
| 10 | Western Athletic Conference | 8 | 89 | 38 | 49 | 3 | .439 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -4.31 | -2.28 | 2 | 0 | BYU |
| 11 | Ivy Group | 8 | 72 | 37 | 32 | 3 | .535 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4.78 | -6.05 | 0 | 0 | Harvard, Yale | |
| 12 | Southern Conference | 7 | 76 | 38 | 38 | 0 | .500 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7.45 | -7.00 | 0 | 0 | Virginia Military Institute | |
| 13 | Missouri Valley Conference | 7 | 77 | 29 | 44 | 4 | .403 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7.67 | -4.66 | 0 | 0 | Tulsa | |
Consensus All-Americans