Was a professor at a top 20-30 ish school. If you are an excellent student, NAU is probably not a good fit as it will be harder to get in top graduate schools from there (it is ranked 300-400).
If you want to get a decent degree and don't have big graduate aspirations, schools like this are typically fine-it matters what you put into it.
And if you are just a "good" student, NAU is not a bad fit as often these schools have more pragmatic majors that will help get you a job. My University has the #2 ranked English department and although the students are incredibly bright I didn't see a lot of job offers.
Occasionally, we would have graduate students who came from the middle tier schools like NAU. Our admissions did a pretty good job of figuring out the students had talent. Several went on to good careers, but all were slow starters. They simply had to catch up and adjust to a level of work that they had never seen before. In particular, advanced math skills were lacking.
Ivy schools, MIT, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, Chicago, UNC, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin, Duke grads etc. hit the ground running as the top 10 experts in their field knew them and recommended them.
By the way, as you might guess, the faculty at top schools are very bookish and very little tolerance for frat types. It always amazed me that some worked at schools where football and frat boys were a big deal. You would think they would like the mountain air of Flagstaff and its non-preppy lifestyle, but it comes down to money. Prestigious schools have fairly large endowed professorships while Flagstaff does not.
Along these lines, it does explain why places like Boulder have far more prestigious faculty than undergraduate admissions. If you want to run and still keep the higher education doors open, this might fit the bill.