Sorry, but this assumption can't be any further from the truth.
Administrations often demand that the committee submit a short list of three or four candidates.
And, yes, these are the top three or four candidates. But I have yet to sit on a faculty search committee where the number three candidate had qualifications even approaching that of the number one candidate. The number three candidate was on the list because we had to have four names. I have sat on some committees where the search was reopened because we could not find four qualified candidates. So, just because you are one of the top three does not automatically mean you can do the job.