BCS Rankings Week 8: Clemson Tigers and Teams Who Will Be Screwed by Computers

The BCS, every sports fan's favorite lightning rod for controversy, makes its triumphant return to our lives on Sunday night when the first rankings for the 2011 college football season are released.

We all know that something is going to be off, so it is best to remember that there are still six more rankings left to come out. 

Still, just because there are more rankings to come out, that does not mean there won't be plenty of things to gripe about. Of all the things that the BCS gets wrong, ranking teams too low seems to be the most common complaint. 

No matter how it happens, there are always three or four teams in every ranking that should not be ranked as far down as they are. The reasons for the ranking are likely a weak schedule, unimpressive performance and/or the conference's low standing in the eyes, or hard drives, of the computers. 

Here are three teams that will have a legitimate reason to complain when the BCS rankings are announced. 

Clemson Tigers

Clemson has gotten off to a 7-0 start this season, and hold the keys to the ACC regular season championship thanks to Georgia Tech’s loss to Virginia on Saturday. They are currently ranked eighth in the country, which is right around where they could find themselves in the BCS.

The problem is they should be in the Top 5 because of their schedule. They have beaten Auburn, a one-loss SEC team, and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. There are not a lot of teams in the country that have two wins better than those.

Oklahoma State is likely to be ranked ahead of them, but nothing on their resume matches what the Tigers have done so far this season.

Kansas State

Is there a quieter 6-0 team in the country right now than Kansas State? Bill Snyder’s team is not flashy, but they do what they have to in order to win games. They have played a decent schedule to this point, including wins over Miami, Baylor, Missouri and Texas Tech in consecutive weeks.

They have a solid defense that gets after opposing quarterbacks and forces turnovers. The offense is not great, but quarterback Collin Klein is an improving passer and solid option runner.

The computers are not going to give them a lot of love initially, but don’t be surprised to see this team make a move in the next few weeks. They have a rough four-game stretch coming up against Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State, against Texas A&M and at Texas.

Michigan State

The Spartans suffered a setback in Week 3 at Notre Dame, but have played well in every game before and after that loss.

Their latest triumph came against a good Michigan team on Saturday, in which the defense held Denard Robinson, who was averaging over 300 yards of total offense per game, to just 165 yards.

I know the Spartans have to be punished because of that early season loss, but the question is how much? To me, they should be ranked in the Top 15 thanks to performance on the field relative to competition faced.

Regardless of where they are ranked this week, they will have their chance to prove how good they are over the next two games when they host Wisconsin and go on the road to Nebraska.