After beating a Power Four school at a neutral site, Tennessee football jumped just two spots in the AP Poll to No. 22 and one spot in the Coaches Poll to No. 17. Somehow, though, after beating an FCS school, that was enough for the Vols to jump seven spots in the AP Poll and two spots in the Coaches Poll, to No. 15 in both.

Now, to be fair, two weeks in, more teams ahead of them will have lost. However, that explains them leapfrogging the Arizona State Sun Devils, Florida Gators, Michigan Wolverines and Iowa State Cyclones. What changed about this past weekend for them to leapfrog the Alabama Crimson Tide, Ole Miss Rebels and Texas A&M Aggies in the AP Poll, though?

The answer is simple: Media members need to generate hype for this weekend’s matchup between Tennessee football and Georgia in Knoxville.

Saturday’s Tennessee-Georgia game wasn’t supposed to be the marquee event of the week when the season began. ESPN/ABC made it the 3:30 p.m. so the Florida Gators and LSU Tigers could be the night matchup. Then the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Texas A&M Aggies could be the other one.

Unforunately for the powers that be, Notre Dame lost its opener to the Miami Hurricanes, and the South Florida Bulls just upset Florida. That leaves only two games featuring two, undefeated top 25 teams this week: Tennessee-Georgia and USF at Miami. A Group of Five matchup can’t be the premiere game.

As a result, Tennessee football and Georgia will be playing in the marquee game of Week 3. ESPN College GameDay had to concede as much and is heading to Knoxville. This a conference matchup of two undefeated Power Four teams with huge implications for the SEC and CFB Playoff races.

So how do AP voters fit into this scenario?

Well, part of the business of media writers in college football is keeping the sport relevant. That means upping the magnitude of games so they can generate as much content as possible. If Tennessee and Georgia is going to be the biggest game of the weekend, it’ll look a lot better as a top 15 matchup.

This is how you get a mysterious spike in the AP Poll.

Think about each of the teams the Vols leapfrogged. Alabama stayed ahead of them last week despite losing to the Florida State Seminoles and UT beating the Syracuse Orange. Somehow, though, after beating an FCS school 72-17, the Vols were able to leapfrog Bama, who beat the Louisiana Monroe Warhaks 73-0?

Ole Miss got a Power Five win on the road, beating the Kentucky Wildcats, but fell behind Tennessee football despite staying ahead of them last week, and Texas A&M won a blowout despite failing to cover against an FBS team, just like they did last week. Sorry, but the reasoning to move the Vols ahead of these teams doesn’t add up.

Now, that’s not to say UT doesn’t deserve to be ahead of those teams. Josh Heupel’s program has done enough to warrant a top 15 ranking. It’s just to say that they should have been in the top 15 before last week. Blowing out an FCS team shouldn’t do it, especially when they’re jumping over a team that beat an FBS team by even more.

Simply put, it’s obvious there’s a desire for Tennessee football to now be a crucial aspect to the story of this season. Of course writers and TV reporters want a good game on Saturday, but that’s not the point. What’s important is generating as much hype as possible to maximize the number of eyes on the game, and that’s what UT did here.