Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

The release of the annual U.S. News & World Report's annual college rankings are always something I try to peruse. While these numbers might not be gleaned or prompt as much alumni angst or message-board chatter as those developed for football teams by the Associated Press or USA Today, I still find them very interesting.

And while Big 12 schools didn't rank up with the Ivy League traditional powers like Harvard, Princeton or Yale, it still prompted much interest to compare the conference schools and another in terms of its educational rankings.

During my career as an educational reporter many years ago, I remembered that these ratings were criticized by many educators, but still followed with the fervor of football fans with their weekly polls. The U.S. News & World Report ranking formula accounts for factors such as peer reputation, SAT scores, alumni giving and selectivity.

So I thought it would be interesting to see how Big 12 schools ranked with each other based on their U.S. News & World Report score. I also was intrigued by the projected yearly costs for a student and the acceptance rate for applicants to each school. Those figures, and many others, can be found at the magazine's Web site.

Note: Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were both considered "Tier 3" schools and were not given rankings by U.S. World News & Report that were applicable for this comparison.