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 | Big Ten Conference | 11 | 125 | 69 | 53 | 5 | .563 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | .800 | 10.05 | 7.14 | 5 | 3 | Penn State |
| 2 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 134 | 78 | 58 | 3 | .572 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 6.98 | 4.14 | 4 | 5 | Florida |
| 3 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 114 | 59 | 54 | 2 | .522 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 5.47 | 4.92 | 4 | 4 | Oregon |
| 4 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 90 | 51 | 40 | 3 | .559 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 3.80 | 2.10 | 3 | 3 | Nebraska |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 9 | 99 | 57 | 46 | 1 | .553 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 2.93 | 1.82 | 3 | 3 | Florida State |
| 6 | Big East Conference | 8 | 90 | 49 | 42 | 2 | .538 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 2.86 | 1.89 | 3 | 2 | Miami (FL) |
| 7 | Western Athletic Conference | 10 | 117 | 64 | 53 | 3 | .546 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 1.76 | 0.20 | 0 | 3 | Colorado State |
| 8 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 88 | 45 | 45 | 2 | .500 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 0.04 | 0.29 | 2 | 2 | Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texas Christian, Texas Tech |
| 9 | Independent | 11 | 121 | 47 | 74 | 2 | .390 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | -4.78 | -0.69 | 1 | 0 | |
| 10 | Big West Conference | 10 | 110 | 45 | 66 | 0 | .405 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -11.87 | -7.52 | 0 | 0 | Louisiana, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas |
| 11 | Mid-American Conference | 10 | 110 | 49 | 59 | 3 | .455 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -15.52 | -13.68 | 0 | 0 | Central Michigan |
Consensus All-Americans