From John Miller's column in this week's National Review (p. 44):

"Several universities have managed to poach talent by accepting conservatives rejected by more prestigious institutions. The law school at George Mason University, for example, has built an excellent faculty by spotting brainpower that others have overlooked."

More generally, the point here is that Moneyball principles apply to faculty appointments as much as they apply to baseball (as Paul Caron has observed). It just depends on recognizing the market imperfections that create the undervalued assets in a given market.