The easy part was picking a new No. 1 team in light of Alabama’s loss to Texas A&M.

That’s Oregon. The Ducks got off to a slow start by their standards Saturday night at California and still won by a score of 59-17. The Ducks got 45 of the 60 first-place votes this week.

No. 2 is easy, too. Kansas State. A nice road victory against TCU, which isn’t chopped liver.

Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel (2) and his teammates had a lot to sing about Saturday night (AP photo)

Then it got as hard as any ballot I’ve filled out since I’ve been on the AP poll. I don’t believe Notre Dame is better than Alabama. But the Irish have lined them all up and knocked them all down, and I think their schedule has been at least as difficult as Alabama’s, even though Saturday night’s game at Boston College isn’t a good argument for that.

So I put Notre Dame third and only dropped Bama to fourth, and kept 10-0 Ohio State fifth.

Then it’s a quagmire. How to separate Florida and Georgia and LSU and Texas A&M from the SEC, and Clemson and Florida State from the ACC, and Oklahoma.

Florida is 9-1 and has beaten A&M and LSU. But it lost to Georgia and hasn’t been very sharp in its last three games. Georgia has found a rhythm. A&M lost to both Florida and LSU, but just finished a 3-game road sweep of Auburn, Mississippi State and Alabama. Oklahoma’s only losses are to two of the four remaining unbeatens. And so on.

I finally looked at strength-of-schedules and shoved down the ACC teams. And here we go:

1. Oregon (10-0)

Kansas State QB Collin Klein doing what he does, finding the end zone (AP photo)

2 Kansas State (10-0)

3. Notre Dame (10-0)

4. Alabama (9-1)

5. Ohio State (10-0)

6. Georgia (9-1)

7. Texas A&M (8-2)

8. Florida (9-1)

9. Oklahoma (8-2)

10. LSU (8-2)

11. Florida State (9-1)

12. Clemson (9-1)

The view from atop the Big Ten Legends Division (AP photo)

13. Stanford (8-2)

14. South Carolina (8-2)

15. UCLA (8-2)

16. Nebraska (8-2)

17. Oregon State (7-2)

18. USC (7-3)

19. Texas (8-2)

20. Wisconsin (7-3)

21. Northern Illinois (9-1)

22. Louisiana Tech (9-1)

23. Kent State (9-1)

24. Oklahoma State (6-3)

25. Central Florida (8-2)

The AP poll:

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS

1 Oregon (45) 10-0 1485

2 Kansas State (14) 10-0 1451

3 Notre Dame (1) 10-0 1382

4 Alabama 9-1 1259

5 Georgia 9-1 1223

6 Ohio State 10-0 1212

7 Florida 9-1 1089

8 LSU 8-2 1046

9 Texas A&M 8-2 1031

10 Florida State 9-1 1024

11 Clemson 9-1 907

12 South Carolina 8-2 848

13 Oklahoma 7-2 798

14 Stanford 8-2 766

15 Oregon State 7-2 556

16 Nebraska 8-2 549

17 UCLA 8-2 541

18 Texas 8-2 496

19 Louisiana Tech 9-1 374

20 Louisville 9-1 322

21 USC 7-3 297

22 Rutgers 8-1 179

23 Michigan 7-3 135

23 Texas Tech 7-3 135

25 Kent State 9-1 93

Dropped from rankings: Mississippi State 22, Toledo 23

Others receiving votes: Oklahoma State 79, Northern Illinois 77, Mississippi State 48, Wisconsin 26, UCF 16, Boise State 14, Cincinnati 6, Fresno State 6, Arizona 6, TCU 5, San Jose State 4, Tulsa 4, Utah State 4, San Diego State 3, Northwestern 2, Washington 1, Toledo 1