The T11 Has Replaced the T14 in the U.S. News Law School Rankings

Stuart Benjamin (Duke), The US News T14 Is Dead, and Has Been Replaced by the T11 (or, if You Prefer, the T10 with 11 Members):

To state the obvious, many people put a lot of weight (far too much weight, in my view) on the US News law school rankings. Good evidence of this is the prevalence of the term “T14.” The label arose in the 1990s when people noticed that the same 14 law schools—and only those 14—occupied the top 14 spots in every US News overall ranking starting with the first one in 1990. … That is, not only were these 14 schools always in the top 14, but no other school even tied for 14th.

That pattern continued with remarkable regularity through the rankings released in 2022, with three tiny exceptions noted below. …

Between its 2022 and 2023 law rankings, US News changed its methodology considerably, moving toward more objective metrics and away from spending per student—a metric that wasn’t reported to the ABA and could easily be manipulated. We now have four years of rankings under the new regime, and a few things have become clear:

The 1990–2022 rankings are so different from the 2023–2026 rankings that they are effectively separate regimes.
The T14 is dead. The top 14 is the second-least coherent grouping in the 2023–2026 rankings.
The 2023–2026 rankings show more variation (unsurprisingly, since they put more weight on things that change year to year, like employment numbers).
Perhaps surprisingly, at least for now there is a coherent replacement for the T14 in the new regime. Say hello to the T11—or, if you prefer, a T10 with 11 members.