Thank you for the compliment!

But I am sure each is unto themselves and just as good as some if not on their campmi then others.

Hi, Mine is better than yours, is called BS! It is each chapter at each individual chapter.

Are all of mine better than yours, get a life!

I think he means if you put the FSU houses in the SEC, only their LXA chapter would be top-tier anywhere.

Not sure if that's how you were interpreting it or not, cause I don't really know what you were saying. Drunk at 2:30 on a Sunday? Awesome.

It'd be interesting to assign risk to each tier.

If you're in tier 1, you will be hazed at least 35% of the time. There is a 50% chance of being booted off campus. Etc. Etc.

Take that percentage and multiply it against how much you think it's worth being in the top tier and you'll get your real worth.

It's not to say being in the top tier isn't great, but I'm amazed that national offices haven't stepped in to control the social aspirations of their members given their costs these days.

Crackerbarrel, with respect, perhaps we need to define why it is that you find "southern" fraternities superior to all other fraternities and fraternity systems.

You asked what makes Georgia Tech's system strong (and your implication that it is not). Georgia Tech's system is very old with very well established chapters; they are well housed, stable, large chapters and fraternity men populate student government and all major leadership positions. Tech has 31 fraternities - all big, solid nationals - and outside of Virginia Tech or possibly U-Florida that's probably the most in the south.

Yes, fraternities at most SEC schools are very well established and strong, but the "southern" fraternity systems are no more or less dominating of their campuses than the fraternity systems at: Missouri, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Oklahaom, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Penn State, Southern California, Arizona...
In fact, I'd say the fraternity system at U-Arizona is probably stronger all-around than any in the south except Alabama (which has no peer in my opinion), Auburn and possibly Ole Miss. Even then, it's close and arguable.
The Betas at Oklahoma have 150 members plus 50 pledges and live in a house more majestic and awe-inspiring than any - any- in the south. You'd have a hard tme saying they are not "elite".
I love the south and I'm a fan of SEC fraternities, but the SEC fraternity systems are not superior to great fraternity systems in other parts of the country.

As far as your comment that "Top Tier means elite" and that "five out of 20 are not elite"...I respectfully disagree. The top 20% of any large system will tend to be elite. The top men tend to be drawn to the top fraternities. Claiming to be "selective" is something anyone can do. Being selective is only a virtue if you get selected back by the top rushees. On a big campus with a lot of rushees and a large number of fraternities, there are enough "elite" types to populate pledge classes for all the Tier I fraternities.
And, with respect, the truely bottom Tier III is always small, becasue bad fraternities tend to go out of business. The worst ones will fail and drop out of the system.
You may be exactly right about two levels in Tier II, but most people don't make the distinction among those in the middle.

Again, this discussion of your points comes back to how YOU define a superior fraternity system. If it depends to you on how many guys wear pastel shirts, then we'll have to agree to disagree about fraternities and their relative strengths. I respect your enthuiasm for fraternities and I have no doubt you are a stalwart and generous supporter of your chapter.

They're Betas and they go to Oklahoma. I'll say it, nothing remotely elite about that. Also they aren't even a top-tier house at OU.

And I don't care how many people on campus are Greek, if there is nothing elite about those greeks (cough, PSU, 'Zona) then the whole campus being Greek is no different than the whole campus being GDIs. Sorry, but if you don't see anything other than having lots of houses and lots of people in them as being what makes a strong Greek system than we will never agree.

But I'll just go ahead and say that Texas is essentially a southern school, and they have an elite Greek system. Everywhere else you named is awful (although a lot are probably better than GT, since engineering students tend to be sooooo top-tier!!).

Can you post a picture of that house, cause thats hard to believe.

UF doesn't have 6 or 7 top tier houses. It's SAE and KA as tier 1 and EX and ATO as tier 1.1. Then tier two starts. That's pretty clear just from visiting a few times.

I'm saying that all 4 of them are top-tier, but SAE and KA are better than EX and ATO. But anyways, yes there can. Top-tier has to do with a few specific qualities, you don't become a top-tier house just because someone has to be. Tiers are a description, not an actual structure. There are plenty of schools that have no top-tier houses.

I'm sorry, but there is nothing good about that house.

The stone helps matters because it DOES look like a castle.

However I prefer houses to look like they're on the edge of the Golf course at a country club, not castles. Where are the places to practice your golf or sit out front and have a beer?

running in/

That's beautiful. I'm a columns fanatic.

/running out

Sure:
IFC Chapters
http://studentlife.ou.edu/content/view/138/

Try this link for their rush bruchure:
http://oubeta.org/Rush/2007%20Rush%20Book.pdf

Same here.

But not stone colored columns.

I would actually like the house alot more if it had really nice landscaping and some sort of place to drink/eat and they painted it white.

Yeah the stone colored column isn't ideal for me. I like the overall concept, though. It would be stellar if it was painted white!

Are there better photos showing the lawn areas? I really want it to have nice landscaping. Maybe the brick driveway (walkway?) isn't all that there is.

Much like the UF kappa sig house? Except for the fact they lack a front yard.

The Beta house is nice, but by no means "awe-inspiring" and I'm sure someone in the SEC has something for it.

Right, except for without Kappa Sigs living in it.

:D