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 | 123 | 71 | 53 | 5 | .570 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .333 | 11.20 | 8.81 | 4 | 5 | Northwestern |
| 2 | Big Eight Conference | 8 | 89 | 57 | 35 | 1 | .618 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 7.07 | 2.84 | 3 | 4 | Nebraska |
| 3 | Southeastern Conference | 12 | 134 | 79 | 59 | 2 | .571 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .333 | 5.86 | 3.49 | 4 | 4 | Florida |
| 4 | Pacific-10 Conference | 10 | 110 | 58 | 54 | 3 | .517 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 2.41 | 1.92 | 4 | 2 | USC, Washington |
| 5 | Big East Conference | 8 | 89 | 43 | 48 | 0 | .473 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.70 | 2.54 | 4 | 3 | Miami (FL), Virginia Tech |
| 6 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 9 | 100 | 53 | 51 | 0 | .510 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 0.89 | 0.37 | 3 | 2 | Florida State, Virginia |
| 7 | Southwest Conference | 8 | 89 | 46 | 44 | 2 | .511 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 0.78 | 0.80 | 2 | 3 | Texas |
| 8 | Independent | 12 | 132 | 60 | 73 | 1 | .451 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | -2.56 | -1.52 | 1 | 1 | |
| 9 | Western Athletic Conference | 10 | 115 | 59 | 58 | 0 | .504 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | -2.72 | -2.79 | 0 | 0 | Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah |
| 10 | Mid-American Conference | 10 | 110 | 53 | 54 | 4 | .495 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | -8.30 | -6.87 | 0 | 1 | Toledo |
| 11 | Big West Conference | 10 | 110 | 45 | 66 | 0 | .405 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 | -12.72 | -8.34 | 0 | 0 | Nevada |
Consensus All-Americans