When we set out to provide a wildly unscientific, data-free law school ranking via bracket challenge — as opposed to our actual data-driven rankings — we hoped to show that the rash of law schools refusing to provide key metrics to the US News and World Report rankings reduced the project to a mere popularity contest and would invite stupid results. And here we are! The peer surveys that USNWR will heavily lean upon this year won’t be as slanted as the voting in this bracket, but it’s really not much different.
ASS Law is rolling thanks to nearly 700K votes. Which is a hell of a feat since the post itself was opened… fewer times. It’s sort of a microcosm of the George Mason experience — use massive resources to craft a narrative of elite status that isn’t quite backed by the data yet. We had a few more upsets along the way too…
Voting is open through the weekend. It will close Sunday at 10 Eastern… because I’m not staying up until midnight for this nonsense.
(32) ASS Law v. (9) Berkeley
As noted, ASS Law got nearly 700K votes. It wasn’t the only school getting an unnatural lift, as its opponent Wash U. got almost 270K. Meanwhile, Berkeley got a whopping 2300 votes in its win, so it needs to tap into some Silicon Valley brainpower to figure out how to outcheat ASS Law. I think there are at least a few laid-off Twitter folks who could help.
(5) Harvard v. (13) Northwestern
Fair Harvard is the top seed remaining after a brutal two rounds of voting. It’s going to take on Northwestern who beat Columbia to remain in the big show. Harvard looks to be another tough test but — if US News is to be believed — Columbia was already a bigger challenge than the 5th-seeded Crimson.
(16) Texas v. (7) NYU
The voting was tight, but Texas bested Stanford by a handful of votes. Stanford folks must have been too busy making positive change in the world to vote. If you thought the Texas match was close, NYU escaped Michigan by ONE vote.
(6) Penn v. (14) Georgetown
How stupid is this popularity contest? I didn’t even correctly note that Georgetown was even in its Sixteen matchup for over 10 hours. But that didn’t stop the Hoyas from bouncing the University of Chicago. Penn Law professor — for now — Amy Wax will get to enjoy a matchup against a DC school where she proclaims to have a non-profit headquartered even though there’s not much hard evidence of that.
Remember, voting ends Sunday at 10.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
