Rewards standings before the bowl games and after them.

Commentary: The Rewards system had an average year in regards to matching the polls. Wisconsin was ranked lower than by the polls, both before and after the bowl games were finished, in large part due to their early season loss to Cincinnati (3-8), which the voters may have overlooked given the way the Badgers strongly finished off their season. Illinois ended up about eight positions higher in the Rewards final ranking, due in part to a victory over a strong Michigan team (#5 in both polls, and ranked third by Rewards). Teams in positions 24-28 were roughly four to eight positions lower than their placement in the polls. Virginia Tech was #2 before the bowl games, like in the polls, but slipped to fifth in the final Rewards ranking since their best win was over Miami(F), who was 9-4, but only #15 in the polls, and #18 as ranked by Rewards. The teams ranked in positions #2-#4 by Rewards had better quality wins throughout their schedules, even though two of them had one more loss than Virginia Tech did. Undefeated Marshall was ranked #6, but appeared only as #10 in the polls; an early win over Clemson (6-6) gave them a quality win outside their conference, and zero losses helped to keep their overall rating high, even though their average win was less outstanding than some teams ranked just below them. Louisiana Tech, at 8-3, appears as the #14 team in the final Rewards ranking, and even though the voters didn't rank them, they did give a very strong Alabama (10-3, #8 in both polls, and #9 from Rewards) one of their three losses. Louisiana Tech's three losses were to #1 Florida State, top 25 Texas A&M (8-4) and a 6-6 Southern California team, so it seems like perhaps they deserved at least enough recognition by the voters to crack the top 30. (However, the point spread margin when Tech lost those three games might have influenced the voters not to consider them to be in the top 25.)