In a twist of fate, LSU stayed connected to Colorado State University — the university that former Chancellor Michael Martin left LSU for in August — by dropping from 128th place in last year’s U.S. News and World Report best college rankings to 134th place, still tied with Colorado State, in this year’s rankings.

Despite its dropping, the University remains in the top tier of colleges on the list, along with fellow in-state public university Louisiana Tech, which ranked 199th. Tulane University in New Orleans came in at 51st.

Though much hype surrounds the annual rankings, many people say too much emphasis is placed on them.

In a CBS MoneyWatch column, Lynn O’Shaughnessy argues that the U.S. News and World Report rankings should be ignored. She wrote the rankings reward schools that spend a lot of money and therefore incite higher college costs; they measure how many students are rejected as opposed to academic quality; schools cheat because they submit their own information; and the rankings are based on what schools think of one another.

When the University dropped from 124th place in the rankings two years ago to 128th place last year, Martin said the news about the budget crisis was most likely a contributing factor in the change.

LSU is also tied with Southeastern Conference neighbor and rival University of Arkansas in the current rankings. Last year, LSU’s closest SEC neighbor was the University of Kentucky, which was then ranked 124th.