CFB world has wild reactions to Michigan's No. 9 spot on preseason AP poll top 25 rankings: "Michigan has a new cheating scheme we don't know about?"

The Michigan Wolverines are once again the talk of college football with their first-term coach Sherrone Moore being cited for a litany of violations by the NCAA. This comes even as their former coach Jim Harbaugh received a heavy punishment by the authorities.

It has hardly been the sort of preparation the defending national champions hoped for ahead of the new season.

On Monday, the AP Poll's top 25 rankings were released with coach Kirby Smart's Georgia predictably on top. The Wolverines were ranked a disappointing No. 9, marking the fifth time since 2012 that they had been ranked inside the top 10.

It is the lowest ranking for a national champion since the Auburn Tigers were ranked No. 23 in 2011.

Several factors have led to the ranking for the champs. Foremost is the loss of charismatic coach Jim Harbaugh to the NFL right after winning the national championship.

The second factor is the loss of up to 17 first-team members of the national championship-winning team and the relative freshness of the new roster. Finally, at the helm is first-term coach Sherrone Moore with a learning curve expected for the former offensive coordinator.

College football fans on X had mixed reactions to Michigan being ranked No. 9 in the preseason poll.

Some fans were of the opinion that as national champions, Michigan should be much higher on the rankings.

"This is f**king embarrassing. National Champions being put behind teams with Drew Allar starting. Keep up the disrespect," one fan posted.

"Michigan has the best D in college football, doesn’t matter if they win or lose to Texas. I think Michigan will be in the playoffs this year," another fan posted.

"notre dame, penn state and ole miss being above the previous national champions is a joke. none of them did anything special last year. notre dame isn’t even in a conference and went 10-3, penn state is consistently clapped by UofM and Allar is overhyped, ole miss better than both," one fan wrote on his post.

Michigan coach staying defiant despite challenges

The challenges that Sherrone Moore is facing as the Michigan Wolverines coach are significant, let alone the fact that he is a first-term coach. The coming season will test his coaching and management chops to no end.

During the Big Ten media days, Moore was defiant about what he hoped to accomplish with the team next season.

"We're not going to stray away from the goal of trying to win it all," Moore said. "When you're at Michigan, that should be your goal every single year.

"[They have] really done a really good job up to this point and taken necessary steps to be elite, to do all the things that we set out to do. Win the big games, beat our rivals, beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten, go to the College Football Playoff -- and win it. ... Tough, smart, dependable, relentless, enthusiastic and together, that's how I describe our team. We're going to do everything we can to strive for perfection."

The Big Ten is loaded this coming season with the arrivals of heavyweights like coach Dan Lanning's Oregon Ducks. To win the championship for a fourth consecutive season will demand excellence from the Michigan Wolverines.