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If you've ever seen a presentation on the new release figures and how they work, it starts to make perfect sense. The math formula doesn't make sense, but the NPC representative (who's a Math whiz...she majored in math or something...I've seen her speak twice and can't think of her name....) shows a graph that make sense...at least to me.
Basically, the graph shows that ABC is the largest house on campus and has high return rates consistently. 90% of the women they keep on their invite lists through the week rank them #1 on the Pref Card. XYZ is the smallest house with lesser return rates. Only 50% of the women they keep on their invite list rank them #1.
(Now I'm using round numbers for easy math)...Let's say there are 200 women going through recruitment. Quota is 50. In order for ABC to make quota, they don't need to carry 150 women through to Pref...they only need to invite 56 women to pref in order to get 50 NMs (90% of 56=50). Conversely, XYZ needs to invite back 100 women to their pref in order to get 50 NMs. If ABC were allowed to invite 150 women all the way to pref, then there would not be enough women going to XYZ to ensure that they will get 50 NMs. Not only that, but if 150 women went to ABCs pref, and only 50 could accept bids, there's the potential that up to 100 women would not get their first choice, and may go bidless because they dropped XYZ way back on the second day.
Each year, these numbers are adjusted somewhat based on how the chapters are doing. So if the smallest chapter starts getting 90% return rates, the number of women they are allowed to keep inviting back changes. I believe it's also recalculated to account for withdrawals, no shows, etc.
You have to pretend there are a couple of other sororities in this recruitment model that I didn't do the math for (cause I'm not that much of a math whiz to make all the percentages come out nice and even) but you get the idea. The new release figures mathematically even the playing field. It does NOT help a "weak" chapter make up for poor recruitment skills or for not offering women what they are looking for (poor reputation, internal problems, etc.). And it may not save a chapter of 10 women on a campus where everyone else is at 100. However, for those chapters who are good chapters with a lot to offer, it helps funnel more women to their parties and gives them a chance to show more women what they have to offer. At least during structured recruitment. COR and all that stuff is a whole 'nother story.
I'm sure I've butchered the hell out of the explanation that NPC uses, but that's how I wrapped my mind around it. It's not a perfect explanation. Forgive me if my numbers don't quite add up...this was the best I could do without playing with numbers all night. And in no way does this take into account "quota range" or anything like that...that's for someone else to describe!!!
PsychTau
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