Gaming the rankings brings Federal charges

[Hibush]

A dean at Temple learned that USN&WR does not audit any of the information schools send, so he figured he'd send some "good" numbers.

USN&WR was not amused when they found out. The Justice Department stepped in. The dean faces federal charges of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. If convicted he faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. That's the same charge used against the Varsity Blues parents.

USN&WR must have been annoyed that someone other than them would game their rankings. The alleged fraud was that the  information provided would "deceive the school's applicants, students, and donors into believing that the school offered top-ranked business degree program." Will the defense claim that the rankings already similarly deceive readers about the relative quality of programs?

I'm curious about the legal theory behind these admissions cheats. Wire fraud seems to be a stretch because for a cheat that is only a violation of the school's or magazine's rules, but not actually illegal.

[Ruralguy]

The "crime" isn't "not following US News rules," its lying in misrepresenting the institution and gaining from it. That potentially *is* a crime.

Though we can dismiss the rankings as BS, they are actually based on a formula with at least some of the elements actually being real data. Obviously some things like "reputation score" are somewhat  recursive and nebulous. But things like retention are actually measured and reported. My point is *not* that the rankings should be venerated because they contain data, just that its a bit hard to lie about those aspects of the formula and then claim later that "oh well, its all wishy washy anyway."