As a recent graduate of the FSU College of Law I just wanted to chime in.  Several posters already mentioned this, but the drop from "top 50" to #51 really makes no difference whatsoever.  No firm in Florida will look at FSU any differently.  I emphasize Florida because, as others have also mentioned, outside of the top 14 it really is all about the regional location of a given law school. 

I was under the impression that Tier 1 meant 1-50, and then Tier 3 started after 100.  In other words, the former distinction of Tier 2 was dissolved.  Obviously it's weird to jump from Tier 1 to Tier 3, but I've heard people say, on several occasions, that "US News did away with Tier 2." 

As to the departing professors: Ruhl was very good, I've never heard of Kliick, I never had Burch but she was supposed to be good, and Grove was a fantastic teacher.  It's a shame FSU lost these professors, but in my three years at the law school I was highly impressed with the Dean's ability to replace great professors with other great professors.  The loss of accomplished professors pretty much just comes with the territory.  FSU takes professors from much lower ranked law schools, and much higher ranked law schools take professors from FSU.   

This post was edited on 5/29 1:45 PM by QN0LE