Rewards standings before the bowl games and after them.

Commentary: This was an interesting year, because the AP poll had Florida State as the #1 team before the bowl games were played, which was higher than the three undefeated teams. The Rewards system agreed more with the coaches poll at this time, where two of those undefeated teams were ranked above Florida State. After the bowl games, Florida State was named the #1 team by all three, and Notre Dame was #2 in all three as well. Auburn finished their season undefeated, but they weren't invited to play in a bowl game because they were on probation, and therefore, weren't ranked in the coaches poll either. Rewards placed Ohio State five places above were they ended up in both of the polls - after removing Auburn from the AP ranking - which indicated that perhaps the pollsters penalized the Buckeyes too much for their 28-0 loss at Michigan in their contest which was played at the end of the regular season. Alabama, which ended up 9-3-1, was rated by Rewards as the #23 team, which is about 10 places lower than they ended up in the polls, but their best win was only against North Carolina, who ended up about 20th in the polls, and this bowl win probably overshadowed their earlier loss to LSU (5-6) in the voters' minds.