My recommendation would be more of the concept of first among equally qualified.
If you have 1,000 applicants, don't rank them from number one to number 1,000; put them into groups. Here is the group of 250 who are excellent, here is the group of 250 who would do well, and down at the bottom, here is the group of 250 who should find another line of work. Once you have them grouped equally, then you can set your priorities. You can decide who you would like to give the offers to first among the equally qualified candidates.