I feel like a dingbat. According to the Gamerescape wiki, the hierarchy of ranks can be reordered. I presumed such a task would be accomplished the same way one can reorder party members, but I don't see anything in the interface for it. Is there actually a way to reorder FC ranks?
Edit: I believe I may have found what I need from this post. I'll take a look when I'm able to log in.