Geez, FuzzieAlum, you ask hard questions!!
I think that there are a lot of schools out there that have an unwarranted rep, good OR bad. The main thing to look at when colonizing is, can YOU (the national sorority entity you) be happy with that school? In other words, don't expand to Teeny U. if you are expecting them to have the financial base/intellectual ferment/name recognition of Yale. It ain't happenin!
Chapters that are successful are successful because they are the best they can be, and appreciated for that, not because they're held up to an unattainable ideal.