If you read and dissect the data in the US News college rankings, one thing becomes clear: the peer rankings of schools really punishes Loyola and other Catholic schools outside the higher eschelon (Georgetown, Boston College, etc.). Loyola's data in all the relevant stats is comparatively high-- graduation rate, graduation rate versus expected rate, avg SAT/ACT, alumni giving, retention, etc. The one thing that really punishes us (and many other Catholic schools below the elite) is peer ranking. I wonder if having a Jesuit Pope who has more of a connection with reality will help us overcome poor peer academic ratings. Just a tenth of one point improvement on the peer ratings would put us in the top 100 nationally.