Its not a small difference, its 20 spots. Fine, let's take Rice(ranked 17) for example, again ranked much higher than UT: If you have a position to fill, offers between $85-90K/year based on experience and you have three equally qualified candidates from Rice, UT and Aggy(all 20 spots behind the one before them).
- Would you rule out the Aggy with similar qualifications and experience just because he went to A&M over the other two? No.
Once going through the interviews and narrowing them down, would you
- Change the compensation you offer now that you have a candidate from Rice in the picture who obviously went to a much better school than the other two? No.
You have X number of jobs to fill, with X number of candidates. Unless they are truly something special the pay isn't going to change no matter the school and as long as they have similar experience/qualifications hiring managers would rarely rule them out. I'd agree with you if the 3 candidates were from Rice, UT and some online university, the third one maybe gets left out. But as long as they are from a state school with four year degree programs, especially noticeable "brands" due to their presence on TV via sports or flagship schools of their state, they aren't getting left out.
These rankings are meaningless if we aren't talking about MBA or law school.