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At the time of the Houston and San Jose State selections the NPC rules were much less regimented.
At Houston the Dean's Office notified all of the national groups of the intent and requested to be notified of those groups interested in placing a chapter on campus. Each local group could contact any or all of the national groups which had registered. After each group had done their research they notified the nationals of their choice. If the national was interested in that group, a meeting was set up where a presentation could be made (selling the merits of each to the other). From that process all of the groups matched with a selection. Amazingly efficient, the process began in the spring of 1955, the groups officially pledged in January and installed in February. The fraternity process was similar but far less organized and took longer to complete.
San Jose State was similar but a little more competitive because there were far more nationals interested than locals available. At least two local fraternities (and maybe some of the sororities) made tentative agreements with a national but continued shopping and finally upgraded to another group they felt was stronger or a better fit. A couple of the national organizations, after losing out on a group of their choice, went back and selected a local organization they had earlier rebuffed. The four groups that formed colonies had either lost the local group of their choice or lost out completely, but felt that the climate was healthy enough to support more groups and were successful in starting from scratch. Fascinating drama!
The ultimate feeding frenzy was when the University of California opened its Southern Campus, known today as U. C. L. A. Over about a 7 - 8 year period during the 1920s, 35 sororities (and a similar number of fraternities) installed chapters, almost all of which came from previously local organizations. As fascinating as the story would be, it would require a lot of research, including on-campus, which I do not have the facilities to do.
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