BCS Poll 2013: Top 25 Standings for Initial Release

Week 8 of the college football season is in the books, and it's now time for everyone's favorite part of the year: the release of the first BCS rankings.

There is perhaps nothing more controversial in all of sports, as each and every year the weekly release of BCS standings bring with it debate, disbelief, apprehension, conspiracy theories, all-out anger and all of that good stuff. 

College football is set to finally do away with those pesky computers and implement a playoff system in 2014, but that just means we get one more season to enjoy one of the most loathed systems around.

Without further ado, let the arguments begin about the rankings, courtesy of ESPN.com:

Rank	Team	Record	BCS Average
1	Alabama	7-0	.984
2	Florida State	6-0	.935
3	Oregon	7-0	.932
4	Ohio State	7-0	.855
5	Missouri	7-0	.822
6	Stanford	6-1	.741
7	Miami (FL)	6-0	.720
8	Baylor	6-0	.712
9	Clemson	6-1	.625
10	Texas Tech	7-0	.622
11	Auburn	6-1	.506
12	UCLA	5-1	.481
13	LSU	6-2	.455
14	Virginia Tech	6-1	.441
15	Oklahoma	6-1	.420
16	Texas A&M	5-2	.367
17	Fresno State	6-0	.338
18	Northern Illinois	7-0	.303
19	Oklahoma State	5-1	.269
20	Louisville	6-1	.256
21	South Carolina	5-2	.216
22	Michigan	6-1	.164
23	UCF	5-1	.139
24	Nebraska	5-1	.135
25	Oregon State	6-1	.104

The front-runners for the national championship are quite clear at this point.

Two-time defending champion Alabama boasts a road win over Top 10 squad Texas A&M and has comprehensively taken care of every other opponent by at least 25 points.

A looming early-November matchup with LSU and the Tigers' new explosive offense under Cam Cameron stands as the biggest remaining regular-season hurdle. 

Oregon is in a similar position. The high-powered Ducks just beat a very good Washington team in Seattle without De'Anthony Thomas and have destroyed everyone else with ease. Against the Huskies, the Ducks put up 45 points and 631 yards of total offense.

Back-to-back tilts with UCLA and Stanford stand in their way of an undefeated season and a spot in the Pac-12 championship. Those will obviously be two tough matchups, but victories would further solidify Oregon's status as an elite contender.

If controversy is what you're looking for, however, Ohio State, Florida State, Miami (FL) and even Missouri (as well as a few other squads) all have shots at going undefeated and making it crowded at the top. 

Moreover, Fresno State could serve as this year's Northern Illinois and crash the BCS party as a mid-major—and we all know how well that went. 

The picture is a little cloudy right now, but with more than a month left to separate the pretenders from the contenders, things should clear up a little bit. 

Then again, it wouldn't be the BCS without a little bit of mayhem and controversy. 

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