TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
Black employees and applicants for employment with the State of Florida brought suit against the State and its Secretary of State under 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. (Title VII),1 claiming that the State had engaged in a pattern and practice of unlawful racial discrimination in its employment decisions. The case was certified as a class action, but then decertified for inadequacy of representation. After a non-jury trial on the merits of the individual plaintiffs’ claims, the district court entered final judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts, assuming that every plaintiff had proven a prima facie case of discrimination, but finding that none of the plaintiffs had carried the ultimate burden of proving discrimination in light of the defendants’ asserted nondiscriminatory reasons for the challenged employment decisions. Plaintiffs then appealed to this court. We reversed and remanded, holding that the defendants had not articulated a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for any of their challenged employment decisions, and therefore directing the district court to determine for each claim whether the plaintiff had established a prima facie ease of discrimination. See Increase Minority Participation by Affirmative Change Today of Northwest Florida, Inc. (IMPACT) v. Firestone, 893 F.2d 1189 (11th Cir.1990) (“IMPACT”). On remand, the district court held that none of the plaintiffs had established a prima facie case with respect to any claim, and again entered judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts.
Plaintiffs now appeal the district court’s judgment on remand, claiming that the district court failed to comply with this court’s mandate and with the law of the case. Because we conclude that the district court applied incorrect legal standards in deciding whether the plaintiffs had established prima facie cases, we undertake the task ourselves.2 [1180]*1180We vacate the court’s judgment in part and affirm in part, remanding the case to the district court with directions.
I.
This case was brought in 1979 as a class action in the District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The named plaintiffs — a non-profit organization (“IMPACT”),3 black employees of Florida’s Department of State (the “Department”), and black former applicants for employment with the Department — brought suit on behalf of “all past, present, and potential black employees” against the State and the then-Secretary of State, George Firestone,4 alleging racial discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and Title VII.5 The plaintiffs claimed that the State had engaged in a pattern and practice of employment discrimination, carried out by a cadre of white supervisors who conducted discriminatory subjective evaluations. The plaintiffs sought' equitable relief, including reinstatement, hiring, back pay, front pay, seniority compensation, and fees and costs.
On November 7, 1980, the district court entered an order, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, certifying a class in the case consisting of “all past, present and future black persons employed by the Florida Department of State and all past, present and future black applicants for employment with the Florida Department of State.” The case then proceeded as a certified class action. Following protracted discovery disputes, the plaintiffs filed an “emergency motion” to suspend the pre-trial schedule. In that motion, the plaintiffs stated that, because the defendants had repeatedly refused to comply with the plaintiffs’ discovery requests, plaintiffs’ counsel would be “financially and physically unable to adequately represent the interests of the certified class” if the court did not grant plaintiffs immediate relief from the defendants’ recalcitrance. Based on the quoted representation by the plaintiffs, the district court held a hearing regarding the continued ability of the named plaintiffs and of plaintiffs’ counsel adequately to represent the class''under Rule 23(a)(4). Following the hearing, the court decertified the class based on financial inability.
The case then proceeded toward trial on the individual plaintiffs’ claims. The court entered numerous pretrial orders, including an order stating that “defendants need not include [in their discoverable evidence] any information concerning employment tests; such tests are not an issue in this case.”
Non-jury trial commenced April 1, 1986. At trial, the court heard the claims of eleven individual plaintiffs,6 each alleging racial dis[1181]*1181crimination in hiring or promotion and proceeding on both disparate treatment and disparate impact theories. At the close of the plaintiffs’ ease in chief, the court, in response to oral motions by defendants’ counsel, 1) dismissed all disparate impact claims, 2) dismissed all claims brought by plaintiff Gracie Holton, and 3) dismissed plaintiff Charles Stewart’s claim based on the Department’s failure to hire him to the position of Regional Representative.7
On August 11, 1986, the district court entered an order detailing its findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the evidence presented at trial. The court assumed that each plaintiff had established a prima facie ease of discrimination, but found that the defendants had produced evidence of legitimate, nondiseriminatory reasons for the employment decisions challenged by the plaintiffs, and that the plaintiffs had failed to show they had been discriminated against despite that evidence. It therefore entered judgment for the defendants on all counts on October 3,1986.
The plaintiffs appealed to this court, elaim-ing, inter alia, that the court had erred by 1) eliminating testing evidence from the scope of discovery; 2) dismissing plaintiff Gracie Holton’s claims; 3) decertifying the class and denying the plaintiffs’ motion to recertify; and (most importantly for the purposes of the present appeal) 4) determining that defendants had carried their burden of production under Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). With regard to the last issue, the plaintiffs argued that the defendants themselves had articulated no legitimate, nondiseriminatory reasons for their employment decisions, and that the court had impermissibly substituted its own reasons as support for its judgment against the plaintiffs. We issued an opinion addressing the plaintiffs’ claims on February 6, 1990. See IMPACT, 893 F.2d at 1189.
In IMPACT, we held, in relevant part, that the defendants indeed had failed to carry their burden under Burdine, see IMPACT, 893 F.2d at 1193-94; 8 thus, we concluded [1182]*1182that the district court had erred in its judgment with regard to all claims. We therefore reversed and remanded with directions that the district court make specific findings with regard to the prima facie strength of each plaintiffs claim. See id. at 1194-95. We also held in IMPACT that the district court had erred in precluding pretrial discovery of employment testing evidence, and that the district court had incorrectly dismissed plaintiff Holton’s claims at trial. See id. at 1196-97. Finally, we stated that the issue of recertification would “remain open for consideration by the trial court on remand.” Id. at 1196.
On remand, the district court stated that each plaintiff seeking to establish a prima facie case was required to prove the following four elements:
1) The plaintiff was a member of a protected class;
2) The plaintiff applied for and was qualified for the position in question;
3) A person not a member of the protected class with equal or lesser qualifications received the position, and;
4) The adverse employment action complained of was actually taken against him.
The court concluded that none of the plaintiffs had succeeded in establishing a prima facie case under these criteria with respect to any of their claims; therefore, no plaintiff was entitled to judgment in his or her favor. The court then concluded that, because no plaintiff had succeeded on his or her individual claim, the issue of recertification was moot. Finally, the court held that because there existed no certified class, and because it had dismissed all disparate impact claims before trial, employment testing evidence was irrelevant. Having disposed of all issues included in our IMPACT mandate, the district court entered judgment, on May 22, 1995, against every plaintiff save Gracie Hol-ton (now named Gracie Dejerinette).9
The plaintiffs now appeal that judgment, claiming that the district court erred on remand in 1) finding that none of the plaintiffs had established a prima facie ease of discrimination at trial, 2) refusing to allow plaintiffs to pursue their claims concerning employment tests, and 3) refusing to recertify the class. We consider these claims in turn.
In part II.A, we conclude that the district court misapplied the law when evaluating the prima facie strength of most of the plaintiffs’ claims; thus, we hold that the court erred in entering judgment for the defendants on those claims. We then look to the record ourselves to determine whether any of the erroneously-decided claims were supported by evidence at trial that, if believed by the district court as the trier of fact, would suffice to establish a prima facie case of discrimination in violation of Title VII. In part II.A.2, we vacate the court’s judgment with respect to those claims for which the plaintiff established a prima facie case and remand for further proceedings. In part II.A.3, we affirm the court’s judgment with regard to all other claims.
As we explain in part II.B, because we hold in part II.A that the plaintiffs’ prima facie cases are determinative, we need not reach the plaintiffs’ arguments regarding admissibility of testing evidence. With regard [1183]*1183to the plaintiffs’ third issue&emdash;recertification&emdash; we again leave the matter open for the district'court on remand.
II.
A.
Appellants first claim that the district court erred in assessing the prima facie strength of their claims. Before addressing their argument, we pause to set forth the now-familiar framework of burdens of proof, established by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), that a Title VII plaintiff must satisfy to obtain judgment in her favor if she possesses only circumstantial evidence of discrimination.
Under McDonnell Douglas, a Title VII plaintiff must first establish a prima facie case of intentional discrimination. See McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. A valid prima facie case creates a presumption that discrimination has occurred.10 See Burdine, 450 U.S. at 254 n. 7, [1184]*1184101 S.Ct. at 1094 n. 7; Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1528 (11th Cir.1997), cert. denied sub nom. Combs v. Meadowcraft Co., - U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 685, 139 L.Ed.2d 632 (1998); Crawford v. Western Elec. Co., 745 F.2d 1373, 1376 (11th Cir.1984). If the prima facie case remains unrebutted, therefore, the plaintiff is entitled to judgment in her favor as a matter of law, provided that the trier of fact believes the evidence put forward to establish the prima facie case.11 See Combs, 106 F.3d at 1528 (“If the trier of fact believes the plaintiffs evidence, and if the employer is silent in the face of the presumption, the court must enter judgment for the plaintiff because no issue of fact remains in the case.” (emphasis added) (citing Burdine, 450 U.S. at 254, 101 S.Ct. at 1094)).
The defendant may rebut a prima facie ease of intentional discrimination by articulating a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse employment decision of which the plaintiff complains. Although this burden is not “onerous,” Burdine, 450 U.S. at 253, 101 S.Ct. at 1094, neither is it a mere formality. The defendant may not satisfy its burden by presenting a hypothetical reason for the employment decision in question; instead, it must raise “a genuine issue of fact as to whether it discriminated against the plaintiff’ by making that decision. Id. at 255, 101 S.Ct. at 1094. In other words, “the defendant must clearly set forth, through the introduction of admissible evidence,” the reason for its adverse employment decision, and that reason “must be legally sufficient to justify a judgment for the defendant.” Id.; see also Trotter v. Board of Trustees of the Univ. of Ala., 91 F.3d 1449, 1455 (11th Cir.1996).
Once the defendant carries this burden and thereby rebuts the plaintiffs pri-' ma facie case, the initial presumption of intentional discrimination drops fiwn the case. See Carter v. Three Springs Residential Treatment, 132 F.3d 635, 643 (11th Cir.1998) (“Successfully carrying this burden bursts the presumption of discrimination and leaves only the ultimate question&emdash;whether the employer’s offered explanations are pretextual.”). The plaintiff must then persuade the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against her despite the defendant’s assertion of a lawful reason for the challenged employment decision. See Burdine, 450 U.S. at 255, 101 S.Ct. at 1094-95; Combs, 106 F.3d at 1528 (citing McDonnell Douglas). The plaintiff cannot simply stand on her prima facie case;12 instead, she must [1185]*1185convince the court that the evidence in the case as a whole preponderates in favor of a finding of intentional discrimination by the defendant. If she does so, she is entitled to judgment in her favor.
1.
Keeping this framework in mind, we turn to our decision in IMPACT, which is the source of the district court’s mandate on remand.13 In IMPACT, we held that the defendants had failed to produce any probative evidence of legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for them challenged employment decisions. If any plaintiff had established evidence at trial sufficient to raise a presumption of intentional discrimination, therefore, that presumption stood at the end of trial and the plaintiff was entitled to judgment in her favor if she convinced the trier of fact of the credibility of her prima facie ease. Because the district court had not made findings of fact with regard to the prima facie strength of each plaintiffs claim, we remanded the plaintiffs’ eases to the district court for the necessary determinations. The court on remand found that no plaintiff had established a prima facie case. The plaintiffs now contend that the district court erred in that determination.
We agree in part with the appellants’ contention. On remand, the district court applied two incorrect legal standards when assessing the prima facie strength of the plaintiffs’ claims. Any decision based on one or both of those standards, therefore, is in error.
First, the district court required each plaintiff to prove the following elements by a preponderance of the evidence:
1)The plaintiff was a member of a protected class;
2) The plaintiff applied for and was qualified for the position in question;
3) A person not a member of the protected class with equal or lesser qualifications received the position, and;
4) The adverse employment action complained of was actually taken against him.
In other words, the court required each plaintiff to prove that he or she was equally or more qualified than the successful applicant to hold each employment position in question. The plaintiffs claim that the court erred by including relative qualifications at the prima facie stage of the McDonnell Douglas framework. We agree.
In this circuit, we appear to have articulated different standards for a prima facie case depending on whether the relevant Title VII claim is classified as a “failure to hire” or a “failure to promote” claim.14 There exist several different formulas for a “failure to promote” prima facie case, including a formula akin to that articulated by the district court. We note in passing that the promulgation of differing standards of proof for different types of injury under Title VII only promotes confusion and inconsistency, a result undesirable in any context, but one which is exacerbated in Title VII jurisprudence because of the general instability that pervades this area of the law. Thus, although the Court in McDonnell Douglas noted that it may be necessary to alter the requirements of the prima facie ease somewhat to respond to unique fact patterns, see McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802 n. 13, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 n. 13, we believe that it is generally unwise to fragment the applicable legal standards in this area. That said, we proceed to examine the district court’s formulation of a prima facie case as including proof of relative qualifications.
[1186]*1186In McDonnell Douglas, the Supreme Court stated that a plaintiff may establish a prima facie case for a Title VII claim by showing
(i) that he belongs to a racial minority;
(ii) that he applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applicants;
(iii) that, despite his qualifications, he was rejected; and
(iv) that, after his rejection, the position remained open and the employer continued to seek applicants from persons of complainant’s qualifications.
McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824.15 This standard, however, was tailored to the particular ease at hand — a case in which there was no showing the defendant employer had hired anyone for the plaintiffs coveted position. See Green v. McDonnell-Douglas Corp., 299 F.Supp. 1100 (E.D.Mo.1969) (reciting the facts of the case but including no mention of a successful applicant); Green v. McDonnell-Douglas Corp., 318 F.Supp. 846 (E.D.Mo.1970) (same).16 In Crawford v. Western Elec. Co., 614 F.2d 1300, 1315 (5th Cir.1980),17 therefore, we added an alternative to the fourth element of the McDonnellr-Douglas standard to address a situation in which the plaintiff “loses out” to another applicant in competition for the coveted promotion:
[Pjlaintiffs may establish a prima facie violation by showing that they are members of a group protected by title VII, that they sought and were qualified for positions that [the defendant employer] was attempting to fill, that despite their qualifications they were rejected, and that after their rejection Western Electric either continued to attempt to fill the positions or in fact filled the positions with [persons outside the plaintiffs protected class].
(citing McDonnell-Douglas) (emphasis added). This alternative was necessary because “the fourth McDonnellr-Douglas criterion, that the position remained open and that the employer continued to seek applicants after the plaintiffs rejection, certainly should not be required when the plaintiffs rejection is simultaneous with the hiring or promotion of the person chosen to fill the position.” Simon v. Honeywell Inc., 642 F.2d 754, 755 n. 4 (5th Cir.1981) (citing Burdine, 450 U.S. at 254 n. 6, 101 S.Ct. at 1094 n. 6).
The Crawford standard is well established in this circuit. See e.g., Coutu v. Martin County Bd. of County Commrs., 47 F.3d 1068, 1073 (11th Cir.1995); Welborn v. Reynolds Metals Co., 810 F.2d 1026, 1028 (11th Cir.1987); see also Hill v. Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co., 767 F.2d 771, 773 (11th Cir.1985); McWilliams v. Escambia County Sch. Bd., 658 F.2d 326, 331 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981)18 (cited in the district court’s original order of August 11, 1986).19 In Perryman v. Johnson Prods. Co., 698 F.2d 1138 (11th Cir.1983), however, we “created,” in dicta,20 a very different prima facie standard, stating that:
[1187]*1187A plaintiff may establish a prima facie case of promotion discrimination by proving that he or she is a member of a protected minority, was qualified for and apphed for the promotion, was rejected despite these qualifications, and that other employees with equal or lesser qualifications who were not members of the protected minority were promoted. Crawford v. Western Electric Co., Inc., 614 F.2d 1300, 1315 (5th Cir.1980); Bundy v. Jackson, 641 F.2d 934, 951 (C.A.D.C.1981).
Perryman, 698 F.2d at 1142 n. 7 (emphasis added). Clearly Crawford does not support the addition of a “relative qualifications” element to the fourth prong of the Crawford prima facie standard.21 Although the second case Perryman cites as support, Bundy v. Jackson, may provide indirect support from outside the circuit,22 we have found no explanation for why the Perryman court decided to alter the prima facie case in this way.
Since Perryman, we have several times included the “lesser or equal qualifications” prong in our articulation of a prima facie case for discrimination in failure to promote. See e.g., Carter v. Three Springs Residential Treatment, 132 F.3d 635, 642 (11th Cir.1998); Evans v. McClain of Ga., Inc., 131 F.3d 957, 963 (11th Cir.1997); Combs v. Plantation Patterns, 106 F.3d 1519, 1539 n. 11 (11th Cir.1997); Batey v. Stone, 24 F.3d 1330, 1334 n. 11 (11th Cir.1994); Hill v. Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co., 885 F.2d 804, 809-10 (11th Cir.1989); Wu v. Thomas, 847 F.2d 1480, 1483 (11th Cir.1988); Roberts v. Gadsden Mem’l Hosp., 835 F.2d 793, 796 (11th Cir.1988). In only two of these eases, however, does the Perryman formulation give rise to a holding inconsistent with recognition of the Crawford prima facie standard as the law of the circuit .23 More importantly, every one of [1188]*1188these cases apparently traces its articulation of the prima facie standard back to Perry-man ’s footnote pronouncement.
Thus, in regard to the proper prima facie standard, we are faced with two conflicting lines of precedent.' In deciding which line of precedent to follow, we are, ironically, faced with two conflicting lines of precedent. See Harris v. Menendez, 817 F.2d 737, 740 n. 5 (11th Cir.1987) (noting conflicting lines of precedent on this issue without choosing between them); Kent v. Baker, 815 F.2d 1395, 1399 n. 3 (11th Cir.1987) (same). One line of precedent holds that when circuit authority is in conflict, a panel should look to the precedents that are most consistent with Supreme Court cases or the weight of authority within the circuit; if there is no sufficiently analogous Supreme Court case and the Eleventh Circuit eases are somewhat evenly divided, then the panel should look to common sense and reason. See Georgia Ass’n of Retarded Citizens v. McDaniel, 855 F.2d 794, 797-98 (11th Cir.1988); Dorse v. Armstrong World Indus., Inc., 798 F.2d 1372, 1376 (11th Cir.1986); Manufacturing Research Corp. v. Graybar Elec. Co., Inc., 679 F.2d 1355, 1360 n. 12 (11th Cir.1982); United States v. Hob-son, 672 F.2d 825, 827 (11th Cir.1982); see also United States v. Gort, 737 F.2d 1560, 1564 (11th Cir.1984) (following later line of precedent because “it is clearly the more dominant and better reasoned one”). The other line of precedent holds that when circuit authority is in conflict, a panel should look to the line of authority containing the earliest case, because a decision of a prior panel cannot be overturned by a later panel. See Johnson v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 126 F.3d 1372, 1380 n. 10 (11th Cir.1997); Robinson v. Tanner, 798 F.2d 1378, 1383 (11th Cir.1986); see also Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir.1981) (holding that decisions of prior panels are binding on subsequent panels, and can be overturned only by the court sitting en banc).
We believe that the latter of these conflict rules&emdash;the “earliest case” rule&emdash;is the correct one, because of the importance of the prior precedent rule.24 The prior precedent rale, which binds later panels to the decisions of former panels, is essential to maintaining stability in the law. The rule is “emphatic” and “firmly established” in the Eleventh Circuit. See Cargill v. Turpin, 120 F.3d 1366, 1386 (11th Cir.1997); United [1189]*1189States v. Hogan, 986 F.2d 1364, 1369 (11th Cir.1993); see also United States v. Steele, 117 F.3d 1231 (11th Cir.1997) (following prior precedent despite explicit disagreement), rev’d on other grounds, United States v. Steele, 147 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir.1998) (en banc). Of course, by adopting the “earliest case” rule to resolve intra-circuit splits, we are still in a sense ignoring the prior panel precedent rule — by choosing one line of eases, we are implicitly overruling the other line of cases. This is, however, a necessary consequence of an intra-circuit split, and the rule we adopt is more respectful of the prior panel precedent rule than the alternative “common sense and reason” rule, which essentially tells judges that once they find a division of authority they are free to throw precedent to the wind.25 In this case, the Cranford standard (established in 1980) predates the Perryman standard (established in 1983), and is therefore the standard to be applied in the Eleventh Circuit.26
In addition to the controlling precedent within the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court cases of Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981) and Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989) have explicitly addressed the issue of relative qualifications in a way that accords with the Crawford standard. The story of the first of these cases, Burdine, begins with the case of East v. Romine, Inc., 518 F.2d 332 (5th Cir.1975), decided eight years prior to Perry-man. In East, plaintiff Cora East, a welder from Savannah, Georgia, brought suit against defendant Romine, Inc., a construction business that hired welders, under Title VII, claiming that she was denied a position at the company because of her sex. We stated that, to establish a prima facie case of discrimination, East had to show:
(1) that [she] belonged] to a group protected by Title VII; (2) that [s]he applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applicants; (3) that, despite [her] qualifications, [s]he was rejected; and (4) that, after [her] rejection the position remained open and the employer continued to seek applicants among persons of [East’s] qualifications.
East, 518 F.2d at 337 (citing McDonnell-Douglas). We then found that East had established a prima facie case with respect to one of her claims because:
As a woman, Ms. East is in a group protected by Title VII. She formally applied for a welding job and was at least presumptively qualified on the basis of an application which showed a long history of welding work. Romine, Inc. accepted applications whenever they came in, and Ms. East was not offered a job. Lastly, and the crucial distinction between this claim and that for 1968,27 Romine hired nine welders within six months after East made her application.
Id. at 338 (footnote omitted). We note first that by so finding, we clearly did not require East to prove anything regarding her qualifications relative to the “nine welders [hired] within six months” after she applied for a welding position — the fact that the other welders were hired was sufficient to establish [1190]*1190that the position was actually “in contention” at the time that East applied. Thus, East applied the later-articulated Crawford standard. Most importantly, however, after finding that East had successfully established a prima facie case of sex discrimination, we proceeded to evaluate Romine’s rebuttal evidence. We held that the defendant had failed to carry its rebuttal burden because it failed to •present evidence of relative qualifications: “[C]omparative evidence lies at the heart of a rebuttal of a prima facie case of employment discrimination.... When a pri-ma facie case of discrimination has been made out, then we cannot presume that the answer lies in the [successful applicant’s] judicially cognizable superior credentials.” Id. at 339 (emphasis omitted).28 Thus, in East, we clearly placed relative qualifications in the second stage of the McDonnell-Douglas framework, not the prima facie stage.
Four years later, we adopted much of East wholecloth in Burdine v. Texas Department of Community Affairs, 608 F.2d 563 (5th Cir.1979). In Burdine, however, we interpreted East as establishing a rule that a defendant could not succeed in defending against a Title VII claim unless it established that the successful applicant for the plaintiffs coveted position was more qualified than the plaintiff. See id., 608 F.2d at 567.
The Supreme Court subsequently granted certiorari in Burdine. In Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981) (commonly referred to as “Burdine ” in “the McDonnell-Douglas-Burdine ” framework), the Court held the following:
The Court of Appeals [ ] erred in requiring the defendant to prove by objective evidence that the person hired or promoted was more qualified than the plaintiff. McDonnell-Douglas teaches that it is the plaintiffs task to demonstrate that similarly situated employees were not treated equally. The Court of Appeals’ rule would require the employer to show that the plaintiffs objective qualifications were inferior to those of the person selected. If it cannot, a court would, in effect, conclude that it has discriminated....
... Title VII, however, does not demand that an employer give preferential treatment to minorities or women....
The view of the Court of Appeals can be read, we think, as requiring the employer to hire the minority or female applicant whenever that person’s objective qualifications were equal to those of a white male applicant. But Title VII does not obligate an employer to accord this preference. Rather, the employer has discretion to choose among equally qualified candidates, provided the decision is not based upon unlawful criteria. The fact that a court may think that the employer misjudged the qualifications of the applicants does not in itself expose him to Title VII liability, although this may be probative of whether the employer’s reasons are pretexts for discrimination.
Id. at 258-59, 101 S.Ct. at 1096-97 (citations omitted). Thus, the Supreme Court overruled the portions of our decision in East that 1) imposed a burden of persuasion instead of production on the employer during the rebuttal stage of McDonnell-Douglas, and 2) required the defendant to prove that the plaintiff was less qualified than the successful applicant to succeed in defending against a Title VII claim. See Burdine v. Texas Dep’t of Community Affairs, 647 F.2d 513, 514 (5th Cir.1981) (reiterating the Court’s holdings on remand, and explaining how the Court’s decision applies to cases in this circuit); Johnson v. Uncle Ben’s, Inc., 657 F.2d 750, 752 (5th Cir.1981) (same). The Burdine Court did not, however, overrule the portion of East that placed relative qualifications in the rebuttal stage of the McDonnell-Douglas framework. In fact, the Court implicitly affirmed this placement by stating that “[t]he fact that a court may think that the employer misjudged the qualifications of the applicants does not in itself expose him to Title VII liability, although this may be probative of whether the employer’s reasons are pretexts for discrimination.” In other words, the Supreme Court implied that it is the employer who initially presents evidence of relative qualifications, not the employee.
[1191]*1191Of course Perryman and its progeny were decided after the Supreme Court’s decision in Burdine. In light of East, however— which remains binding precedent — and of the Court’s implicit affirmation of East’s relevant holding, we believe that the articulation in the Perryman cases of a prima facie standard that includes proof of relative qualifications is quite suspect.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989), further clarifies the place of relative qualifications in the McDonnellr-Douglas framework and ultimately prohibits us from imposing on the plaintiff the burden of proving relative qualifications at the prima facie stage.29 In Patterson, Brenda Patterson, a black woman, brought suit against her employer under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, claiming that the employer “had harassed her, failed to promote her ... and then discharged her, all because of her race.” Patterson, 491 U.S. at 169, 109 S.Ct. at 2368-69. As its rebuttal to Patterson’s prima facie case, the defendant employer claimed that the successful applicants were more qualified than Patterson to perform the position to which she sought promotion. See Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 805 F.2d 1143, 1147 (4th Cir.1986) (“[O]nce an employer has advanced superior qualification as a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for favoring another employee over the claimant, the burden of persuasion is upon the claimant to satisfy the trier of fact that the employer’s proffered reason is pretextual.... That was the situation here”). After a jury trial, the district court instructed the jury that Patterson could not succeed on her claim for failure to promote unless she showed that she “was better qualified than the white employee she allege[d] was promoted in her stead.” Patterson, 491 U.S. at 170, 109 S.Ct. at 2369. Patterson challenged the instruction on appeal, but the Fourth Circuit affirmed. See Patterson, 805 F.2d at 1146. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether the district court’s instruction was in error. See Patterson, 491 U.S. at 170-71, 109 S.Ct. at 2369.30
On review, the Court held that “the District court erred when it instructed the jury that petitioner had to prove that she was better qualified than the white employee who allegedly received the promotion.” Id. at 186, 109 S.Ct. at 2377. The Court then explained that the McDonnell-Douglas framework for Title VII applies equally well in section 1981 cases, but that the Court of Appeals had “erred in describing petitioner’s burden” under McDonnell-Douglas. Id. at 186, 109 S.Ct. at 2378. The Court then explicitly adopted the Crawford standard, and clarified the place of relative qualifications in the McDonnellr-Douglas framework:
Under our well-established framework, the plaintiff has the initial burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, a pri-[1192]*1192ma facie case of discrimination. The burden is not onerous, here, petitioner need only prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she applied for and was qualified for an available position, that she was rejected, and that after she was rejected respondent either continued to seek applicants for the position, or, as is alleged here, filled the position with a white employee.
... [T]he employer [must then] present evidence that the plaintiff was rejected, or the other applicant was chosen, for a legitimate nondiseriminatory reason. Here, respondent presented evidence that it gave the job to the white applicant because she was better qualified for the position, and therefore rebutted any presumption of discrimination that petitioner may have established ....
Although petitioner retains the ultimate burden of persuasion, our eases make clear that she must also have the opportunity to demonstrate that respondent’s proffered reasons for its decision were not its true reasons. In doing so, petitioner is not limited to presenting evidence of a certain type....
[Petitioner] might seek to demonstrate that respondent’s claim to have promoted a better qualified applicant was pre-textual by showing that she was in fact better qualified than the person chosen for the position. The District Court erred, however, in instructing the jury that in order to succeed petitioner was required to make such a showing.... It was, therefore, error for the District Court to instruct the jury that petitioner could carry her burden of persuasion only by showing that she was in fact better qualified than the white applicant who got the job.
Id. at 186-88, 109 S.Ct. at 2378-79 (footnote and citations omitted).
Thus, under Patterson, we may never require a plaintiff to establish that she is more qualified than the successful promotee, let alone impose that requirement at the prima facie stage. We believe that Patterson also prohibits us from requiring a plaintiff to prove equal qualifications at the prima facie stage. We cannot imagine that the Supreme Court would speak so strongly regarding the lack of any burden to prove lesser qualifications and still leave available to the defendant at summary judgment the argument that the plaintiff failed to prove equal qualifications, especially in light of its clear affirmation of the Crawford alternatives.
We also note that a prima facie standard that includes relative qualifications as a necessary element runs contrary to the policies underlying the McDonnelV-Douglas prima facie case. As explained in footnote 10, supra, the prima facie case enables the plaintiff to reach the legal presumption of discrimination that shifts the burden of producing evidence to the defendant employer. This presumption ensures that a plaintiff who cannot establish that the employer harbored a discriminatory animus towards her may still survive a motion for judgment as a matter of law at the close of her case and thus force the employer to articulate its motives for the challenged employment decision so that the plaintiff has an opportunity to raise an inference of intentional discrimination by circumstantial evidence. The presumption, therefore, accounts for the disparity in access to information between employee and employer regarding the employer’s true motives for making the challenged employment decision.
The Crawford standard sufficiently accounts for this disparity. It enables the plaintiff employee to establish a prima facie ease or intentional discrimination by presenting evidence that is (1) in the employee’s possession already (membership in a protect- ' ed class, qualification, the fact of application for the position, rejection), and (2) objectively verifiable and easily obtainable (the fact that another person received the coveted position or the fact that the position remained open and available to persons of the plaintiffs qualifications). The Perryman standard, however, introduces the element of relative qualifications — the evidence of which is not likely to be in the plaintiffs possession and [1193]*1193may not easily obtainable or objectively verifiable. Only the employer knows whether it truly considered relative qualifications when determining whether to promote the plaintiff, and only the employer can establish what qualifications it actually used to make its promotion decisions. Further, if the employer utilized subjective qualifications in making the challenged decision, there is no way for the plaintiff employee to determine how he “ranked” according to those subjective qualifications in the decisionmaker’s mind. It is therefore appropriate to place the burden of articulating those qualifications&emdash;if relevant&emdash;on the employer, not the employee.
In light of our own precedent and the decisions by the Supreme Court in Burdine and Patterson, we hold that district court in this case erred in imposing as part of the prima facie case a requirement that each plaintiff establish that the successful applicant for his or her coveted position was less than or equally qualified to hold the position. Although a plaintiff may be forced to address relative qualifications if the defendant presents them to rebut the plaintiffs presumption of discrimination, the plaintiff need not introduce evidence regarding relative qualifications before then; she need only prove that she herself was qualified to perform the coveted job.
The district court also made a second error when assessing the strength of the plaintiffs’ prima facie ease for each of their claims. Several times the court found that a plaintiff had not established a prima facie ease with respect to one or more of her claims because the plaintiff failed to identify the successful applicant for the coveted position by name, testifying only as to the applicant’s race. A plaintiff, however, need not identify the successful applicant for a position under the McDonnell-Douglas prima facie framework; she is only required to establish that the successful applicant is not within her protected class.
We hold, therefore, that the district court erred in entering judgment for the defendants whenever it based on its finding of no prima facie case on either the plaintiffs failure to prove relative qualifications, the plaintiffs failure to identify the successful applicant by name, or on both of these standards. For each erroneously-decided claim, we now examine the record ourselves to determine whether the plaintiff indeed produced evidence at trial that, if credible, was sufficient to create a prima facie case. For those claims that do pass muster, we vacate the district court’s judgment and remand for a credibility finding.31 For those claims with regard to which the plaintiff failed to present evidence sufficient to support a prima facie case, however, we affirm the district court because a Title VII plaintiff cannot succeed in proving that she was intentionally discriminated against if she does not establish a prima facie case of discrimination. See Bonanni Ship Supply, Inc. v. United States, 959 F.2d 1558, 1561 (11th Cir.1992) (“[T]his court may affirm the district court where the judgment entered is correct on any legal ground regardless of the grounds addressed, adopted or rejected by the district court.”). In addition, in a minority of cases, the district court did not base its judgment on incorrect legal standards, but correctly applied the law. For this group of claims, we review the district court’s ultimate finding of nondiscrimination under a clearly erroneous standard. See Eastland v. Tennessee Valley Auth., 704 F.2d 613, 620 (11th Cir.1983). We find that the record supports the district court’s findings, and we are not left with the “definite and firm conviction that mistake has been committed.” See United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed.2d 746 (1948). We therefore affirm the court’s judgment with regard to these claims as well.
[1194]*11942.
We vacate the court’s judgment with regard to the following claims (listed by plaintiff) and remand them for further proceedings: 32
Diann Walker:
Clerk V, Division of Elections, May 1978 (Tr. 26:16 — 18).33
Staff Assistant II, Corporations (26:31-35).
Staff Assistant II, Elections, February 1979 (26:37).
Secretary IV, Archives, May 1980 (26:45-26:47, 55:29-55:31).
Secretary IV, Office of the Secretary of State, May 1980 (55:30-31).
Charles Stewart:
Bureau Chief of Administrative Code, July 1977 (36:12-36:13, 36:15).
Bureau Chief of Election Records, 1979 (36:14-36:16).
Office Operations Supervisor I, October 1979 (36:28-29).
Dorothy Roberts:
Accountant III, Administrative Services, February 1979 (36:61-36:65).34
Barbara King:
Secretary III, March 1979 (38:17, 38:17, 38:17-18).35
Secretary III, General Counsel’s Office, April 1979 (38:18-38:19).36
Secretary III, Archives, April 1979 (38:24-38:25).
Word Processor Systems Operator I, May 1980 (38:27).
Clerk V, June 1980 (38:28-38:29).
Secretary IV, June 1980 (38:29-38:30).
Secretary IV, August 1980 (38:30-38:31).
Pearl Williams:
Clerk IV, March 1980 (38:50-38:51).
Secretary IV, 1982 (38:52, 38:54-38:55).
Administrative Secretary, 1984/85 (filled by Elinor Kalfas) (38:57-58).37
[1195]*1195Administrative Secretary 1984/85 (filled by
Nancy Downing) (38:57-58).
Secretary IV, 1985 (38:57-58).
Senior Clerk, 1985 (38:58-59; 46:97-106).38
Louvenia Jones:
Clerk II, Library Services, January 1977 (30:13 & 43:13); Pis.’ Ex. Z-33, p. 167.
Clerk II, Corporations, April 1977 (30:13 & 43:13); Pis.’ Ex. Z-33, p. 167.
Clerk III, Elections, July 1977 (30:16-18 & 43:14); Pis.’ Ex. Z-33, p. 100.
Staff Assistant I, July 1982 (30:33-34 & 46:112-13); Pis.’ Exs. A-5 & 265(1).
Rosa Henderson:
Clerk III, Elections (38:89-90).
Clerk III, Corporations, 1977 (38:87-38:89).
Clerk V, Corporations, 1979 (38:94-38:95).
Clerk V, Corporations, January 1980 (38:96 & 38:94).
Clerk V, 1980 (38:97-38:98).
Documentary Examiner, UCC of Corporations (38:98-38:101).
Delores Colston:
Secretary IV, Elections, April 1977 (39:33-34).39
Linda Isaac:
Clerk I, September 1977 (47:74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33).40
Clerk II, September 1977 (47:74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33 p. 167).
Clerk III, October 1977 (47:74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33 p. 100).
Clerk III, March 1979 (47:74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33 p. 101).
Clerk V, July 1980 (47:74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33 p. 67).
Clerk V, August 1980 (47:74 p. 68).
Jacquelyn Ross:
Secretary III, January 1979 (47:73-74 & Pis.’ Ex. Z-33 p. 80).
On remand, we direct the district court to make credibility findings as to the plaintiffs evidence for each of these claims. If the court credits the plaintiffs’ evidence establishing the McDonmll-Douglas elements of a prima facie case, it must enter judgment in favor of the plaintiff on that claim. See Burdine, 450 U.S. at 254, 101 S.Ct. at 1094. If the court finds the evidence not credible, it must enter judgment in favor of the defendants.
3.
We affirm the court’s judgment with regard to the following claims:
Clerk V, Corporations, August 1979 (successful applicant “Buck” Kohr).
Clerk V, Corporations, August 1979 (successful applicant Kevin St. Louis).
Clerk V, Corporations August 1979 (successful applicant Sandra Inks).
Executive Secretary I, Archives, June 1980.
Administrative Assistant II, Elections, August 1982.
Executive Secretary II.
Clerk Typist III, February 1979.
Secretary III, Cultural Affairs, April 1979.
Secretary III, Archives, April 1979.
[1196]*1196Secretary III, Office of the Secretary of State, March 1980.
Secretary III, Office of the Secretary of State, April 1980.
Clerk-Typist III, Corporations, February 1979.
Secretary IV, April 1982.
Administrative Secretary, 1984/85 (filled by Barbara Birks)
Bookkeeping Machine Operator, September 1978.
Staff Assistant I, August 1981.
Record Management Technician, Archives, 1984.41
Clerk III, Corporations, 1977.
Microphotographer, Archives, 1978.
Fiscal Clerk II, January 1986.
Clerk Typist III, July 1978.
Clerk Typist III, August 1979.
Audio-Visual Technician, August 1979.
Clerk Typist III, August 1979.
Secretary III, August 1979.
Secretary IV, August 1981.
Clerk Typist III, January 1980.42
B.
The plaintiffs next contend that the district court erred on remand by failing to consider employment examination evidence. Employment examination evidence, however, is irrelevant tp a prima facie case of disparate treatment; thus, because all of the plaintiffs’ claims may now be resolved at the prima facie stage, this issue is moot.
C.
Finally, plaintiffs claim that our mandate in IMPACT directed the district court to recertify the class on remand, and that the court erred by failing to do so. This is simply incorrect.
In its original order, the district court entered judgment against every plaintiff; thus, there existed no representative who could adequately represent a class, and the issue of recertification was moot. On appeal, because we held that the district court had erred in entering judgment for the defendants on all counts, we “opened the door” to a finding of nondiscrimination for at least some of the plaintiffs. Thus, on remand after IMPACT, the issue of recertification was “revived.”43 Because we wished the district court to address the continued validity of its decertification order before we did, however, we specifically reserved judgment on the issue of recertification, stating only that the matter “remain[ed] open for consideration by the trial court on remand.” This statement was not a mandate to the district court requiring it to revisit the issue of certification, but merely a reminder to the district court of the legal ramifications of our reversal of its judgment.
On remand, the district court again entered judgment against every plaintiff, thereby “re-mooting” the issue of recertification. In the instant appeal, we hold that the district court erred in entering judgment against several plaintiffs; thus, we have once [1197]*1197again provided the district court with possible representatives for the putative class, resurrecting the issue of recertification a second time. We still wish, however, to leave the initial determination regarding recertifi-cation to the district court. We therefore leave the matter open on remand. We intimate no view as to the propriety of certifying a class if the district court finds that at least one plaintiff is entitled to judgment in her favor.
III.
For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment in part and VACATE the judgment in part. We REMAND with directions that the original district court determine, with regard to each vacated claim listed in part II.A.2, whether the plaintiffs evidence of a prima facie case is credible evidence. If the court credits the plaintiffs’ evidence establishing the McDonnell-Douglas elements of a prima facie case, we direct it to adjudge the defendants liable on that claim, and thereafter to fashion an appropriate remedy.44 We deny the plaintiffs’ request to assign this case to another judge on remand.
SO ORDERED.