So Syracuse isn't ranked at 8-3 yet Clemson is #12 in both the AP and Coaches polls.
Clemson has exactly 1 win against a team with a winning record (7-4 Pitt). Here are their 9 wins:
App State - 5-5
NC State - 5-6
Stanford - 3-8
@ Florida State - 2-9
@ Wake Forest - 4-7
Virginia - 5-6
@ Virginia Tech - 5-6
@ Pitt - 7-4
The Citadel - (FCS, 5-7)
Syracuse's 8 wins:
Ohio - 8-3
Georgia Tech - 7-4
Holy Cross - (FCS, 6-6)
@ #21 UNLV - 9-2
@ NC State - 5-6
Virginia Tech - 5-6
@ Cal - 6-5
UConn - 7-4
And I don't want to hear about transitive that they beat Stanford and Pitt and Syracuse lost to them. If you start doing transitive for every team then your head will explode and you'll have to start with putting Syracuse at #21 and UNLV unranked since Syracuse beat them.
Clemson's schedule has been extremely weak this year. They in no way shape or form deserve to be #12 and us out of the rankings. If they played us they might win easily. They might lose though too. Not going by hypotheticals of who would win they don't deserve to be that much higher than us based on those schedules. College football is too much of a 'let's rank the teams based off personal biases' sport.