Quote:
Originally Posted by skylark
Wholeheartedly agree with this statement for non-competitive campuses (not the mega-southern schools that girls get cut from simply because there aren't enough spots... but then again maybe that's a sign to expand).
The only girls I saw ever go without any bids on my campus (which was a small campus with a less-competitive greek system) were girls that were downright rude to everyone.
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If you look at the number of girls who get totally dropped or see it through to the end and don't match even at the mega-southern schools, it's a pretty small number in a lot of cases.
What's more likely to happen is they drop out because they don't like where they are invited back, which might change if another group is on campus. A new group won't have any reputation at all and might be more attractive than an established but not as well regarded group.
Some campuses like Ole Miss, though, are more problematic because tradition is such a huge part of the system. It's hard to break in new, even assuming you could start at relatively the same level.
Mississippi State isn't even as, dare I say, elitist as Ole Miss in terms of the Greek system, and two of the more recent groups failed. Alpha Gam went on in the late 80s, was able to build a house and hang on for 10+ years, but then folded for low numbers. Alpha Omicron Pi apparently had a colony that never even made it to chapter status if the news story I read was accurate. (ETA: apparently this group never even made it to colony status.) Both these examples are in spite of the fact that it's a campus where the remaining groups all come pretty close to hitting quota in pretty huge pledge classes. Sometimes it's just really hard to break in because PNMs have such a firmly establish sense of where they want to be before recruitment even starts.
It will be interesting to see what happens at Alabama. I have the perception that they are getting more out-of-state girls which may make it easier on the new groups because it will be a pool of PNMs with more open minds.
UGA, in my opinion, will be easier for a new group to colonize than at any other time in its history because so many suburban Atlanta kids are going there now who honestly don't have the background in Greek life to care that much about tradition. And because of release figures. Again, I'm just comparing UGA to itself in the past; it will still be insane compared to non-SEC schools.