CHAMPAIGN — Champaign got a shellacking and Danville might have been better off not mentioned in Forbes magazine's latest rankings of "The Best Small Places to Do Business."

The magazine's July 18 issue ranks the 25 best big cities and the 25 best small places — metropolitan areas with fewer than 250,000 people — in which to do business.

At first glance, Champaign seemed a good bet to make the best small-places list because it included several Midwestern towns that are homes to universities.

Manhattan, Kan., (home of Kansas State) topped the list. Columbia, Mo., (home of the University of Missouri) was No. 8. The Lafayette, Ind., metropolitan area, which includes Purdue University, was No. 11, and Iowa City, Iowa (the University of Iowa's locale) was No. 13.

Indiana University's host city of Bloomington, Ind., ranked No. 16, and the Bloomington, Ill., metro area (home to Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan) placed 22nd.

Altogether, 14 Midwestern cities placed among the top 25 small places.

Where was Champaign?

Well down the list at No. 78, according to the Forbes.com website. Champaign was outpaced by State College, Pa. (home of Penn State) at No. 46, and the Illinois state capital of Springfield at No. 54.

Even Texarkana, Tex., (No. 73) and Houma, La., (No. 74) rated ahead of Champaign.

But the ultimate indignity was saved for Danville, Ill., which ranked 182nd of the 184 metro areas on the small places list. Only Albany, Ga., and Vineland, N.J., ranked lower.

Forbes considered 12 metrics in compiling the rankings: past and projected job growth, the cost of doing business and the cost of living, income growth, educational attainment, projected growth, quality of life, crime rate, cultural and recreational opportunities, net migration patterns and highly ranked colleges.

Manhattan, Kan., for example, ranked eighth in job growth, 17th in education and 54th in the cost of doing business, according to Forbes.

Champaign ranked 15th in education, 100th in job growth and 128th in the cost of doing business.

Danville ranked 102nd in the cost of doing business, 168th in job growth and 174th in education — even though the University of Illinois is only 35 miles away.

Here's how other nearby metro areas ranked on the small-places list:

— Kankakee, 93rd.

— Decatur, 104th.

— Terre Haute, Ind., 106th.

John Dimit, chief executive officer of the Champaign County Economic Development Corp., said he suspected Champaign-Urbana's ranking was driven down by job-growth figures.

He noted the University of Illinois — the metro area's major employer — has been contracting the past few years.

But job growth figures may improve this year as the UI stabilizes and Carle, the No. 2 employer, prepares for expansion, Dimit said.

Rantoul also has started recovering from the industrial job losses of recent years, he added, noting the reopening of the pork-processing plant there.

Dimit said it's important for communities to get positive press. But he said many business prospects considering locating or expanding here do so not because of magazine ratings, but because of the area's research capabilities and the proximity of three interstate highways.

On Forbes' big-cities list, Raleigh, N.C., came in first, followed by Des Moines, Iowa. Other Midwest cities on that list included: Cedar Rapids, 11th; Lincoln, Neb., 12th; Omaha, Neb., 20th; St. Louis, 23rd; and Columbus, Ohio, 25th.

Also of note on that list: Minneapolis-St. Paul, 34th; Indianapolis, 43rd; Madison, Wis., 63rd; Peoria, 71st; Chicago, 80th; Ann Arbor, Mich., 127th; Lake County, Ill., 134th; Lansing, Mich., 154th; and Rockford, 191st.

For cities that didn't fare well in the rankings, there's always hope that Forbes made a slip-up in its calculations. One error is apparent on the website, and that's in the description of Champaign.

The city is said to be the home of Roger Ebert's "Overbooked" Film Festival. Though he formerly called it his "Overlooked" Film Festival, it's now simply known as Roger Ebert's Film Festival.