The Neeley School of Business is nowhere to be seen in the most recent rankings from the Wall Street Journal, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.A technicality – the fact the university didn’t graduate 50 MBA students, a requirement for the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey – meant the school didn’t qualify for the list.

The class size decreased from 55 to 40, said Bill Cron, associate dean of graduate programs at Neeley.

The criteria evens the field for the schools in the survey and are obviously necessary.

At the same time, it also pokes a hole in the comprehensiveness of the rankings when a school that places highly in other rankings and was No. 11 last year suddenly disappears from the list.

Either way, Neeley still holds its position in other business school rankings, including those in Forbes Magazine, U.S. News and World Report and Hispanic Magazine.

The business school knew ahead of time they would fall short of the study’s requirements.

Rather than diluting the quality of the class, they opted to maintain student quality and fall off the list.

It’s hard to deny the rankings are important and probably draw attention to the university in some circles.

The school could have easily admitted more students and continued its position of prestige.

It’s also true, though, that the rankings don’t benefit students that are already here. Quality students do, and the school erred on the side of quality students.

The school is to be commended for choosing to retain quality in light of an opportunity to be ranked by the Wall Street Journal.

Editor in chief Andrew Chavez for the editorial board