AT TAXPROF, a comparison of law schools’ reputation with their overall U.S. News ranking. Unsurprisingly (since the U.S. News rankings are budget-driven), Tennessee does better in reputation than it does overall (though since reputation is a major component of the overall ranking, it’s hard to diverge too much). But if you look at scholarly impact, via SSRN, we’re currently at #16, much higher than the U.S. News rankings. (SSRN link may require login, so I’ve put a screenshot below).

All of these rankings are (highly) imperfect approximations of the “real” worth of a school, of course, even if that term has meaning. But this won’t stop schools from trumpeting the ones where they do best!