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 US News & World Report college rankings to 134th place still tied with Colorado State, in this year’s rankings.

In the public university category, the University ranked 67th.

Among Southeastern Conference schools, the University tied for 11th with Arkansas out of the 14 SEC schools, only beating out Ole Miss (151) and Mississippi State (157).

The University of Alabama came in at 77 and Auburn University came in at 89, while Vanderbilt ranked as highest among SEC schools at No. 17.

The ranking is based on tuition, enrollment, fall 2011 acceptance rate, average freshman retention rate, six-year graduation rate, classes with fewer than 20 students and SAT/ACT scores within the 25-75th percentile.

Interim System President and Chancellor William “Bill” Jenkins said he was “disappointed but not surprised” about the drop.

He said he believes the fall was due to faculty-to-student ratio and the University’s reduced research funding.

But Jenkins said he’s optimistic.

“The good news is that we’re still in those rankings. The even better news is we can move up again, and I’m comfortable that we’re going to do that,” Jenkins said. “We’ve just got to restructure and find different ways to fund and move ahead.”

Michael Alford, ISDS junior, said he thinks the drop in rankings could be attributed to the University’s student body.

“We don’t have enough active students…or active learners,” he said.

On the other hand, some students don’t think the ranking means anything.

“I don’t think it makes a difference,” said kinesiology sophomore Christy Saia.