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Let me start off by saying that I'm the newly elected president of a southern, traditional chapter of SigEp. Let me say a few things about the BMP some of which is what I've observed and some of which I have heard.
A few people have touched on this, but there are a few reasons that we (my chapter) believe nationals began the BMP. The first is hazing. Obviously, every national fraternity that uses pledge programs claim to have no hazing, but I would think that none of these actually do. The way the BMP has been set up seems to be a better protection against hazing than anything else out there. I believe that the other main reason for nationals starting the BMP was numbers. I think that they reasoned that the BMP would draw more recruits than a traditional system because of the lack of hazing and the easy entrance into the fraternity.
There have been a few negative side effects. First of all, I think that SigEp has lost its selectiveness in recruiting guys. Someone on here said that his chapter would give almost anyone bids because the fraternity was strong enough to mold anyone into the right guy. That's terrible. A fraternity is supposed to be an elite organization. That's the idea that was sold to me when I rushed and I still believe it today. Allowing anyone to get in takes away from the meaning of that. Also, as many have said, the BMP takes away from the unity of the chapter. From what I understand, each new member works mostly on their own to fulfill their goals. This is completely opposite from pledging a traditional chapter. There's nothing worse than watching your pledge brother take another shot of Texas Pete after you just missed a question about the LROB. This is also related to the next side effect: the BMP has effectively cut the balls of our fraternity. Going through a pledge season and proving yourself to the fraternity and yourself says something. It's meaningful. It says that you are fearless and is something to be proud of.
Many traditional SigEps will say that BMP SigEps are "douche bags" as TheGoat said (not to validate his attitude, but this is a commonly held view). Sure these guys may be balanced in that they make good grades and do community service but are they the guys they party hard and get the girls? Don't get me wrong, making top grades, holding IFC positions, doing community service, and winning intramurals are all things to be proud of, but lets not get away from the fact that we are in a social fraternity.
Let me end by saying that there's a lot I don't know about traditional chapters. If I've said something inaccurate feel free to correct me. These are my thoughts and the thoughts of those in my chapter.
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