Tiers in The SEC

[banditone]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

When you all are doing the overall system rankings, can I ask what you are considering?

The huge split between Ole Miss and Mississippi State seems strange to me on some level.

One more time:

Membership Size (membership at a given time).
Alumni Size.
Physical Plant (house and structures).
Alumni Support (to the house).
Alumni Support (to the University).
War Chest (house money for events).
Campus Involvement / Leadership roles.
What Sororities they interact with on average.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by banditone

One more time:

Membership Size (membership at a given time).
Alumni Size.
Physical Plant (house and structures).
Alumni Support (to the house).
Alumni Support (to the University).
War Chest (house money for events).
Campus Involvement / Leadership roles.
What Sororities they interact with on average.

Was this posted before? Where?

But by those standards, is there that huge a difference between Ole Miss and State, particularly when you look at strong groups on both campuses?

I know Ole Miss has a strong reputation for being old south and exclusive, but I'm not sure the reality of who is really going there matches up with outside expectation.

State is a little redneck to be sure, but if you look at kind of a who's who for Mississippi, State grads are pretty well represented.

Reputation definitely counts for something, and on that alone I understand why Ole Miss is higher, but one of the top two or three while State is at the bottom seems odd if you're looking at anything objective, particularly when Auburn is solidly in the middle.

ETA: I've had relatives go to State and I can say that being Greek seemed far more important to being influential on campus at State than it did at Georgia.

[gtdxeric]

Originally Posted by banditone

Physical Plant (house and structures).
Campus Involvement / Leadership roles.
What Sororities they interact with on average.

The other criteria you mentioned can be objectively measured. If your house has a $100,000 social budget, there's no arguing that it's more (and thereby better) than the one next door or across the state that has a $50K budget.

These, however, come down to opinion. Is it better to have a huge new house, like several of the FSU houses, or a classic, but smaller house, like Fiji at Texas? How much better or worse? What campus leadership roles actually "mean something"? Student government president is usually the consensus most prestigious position on a campus, but the level of respect definitely varies from campus to campus. This kind of stuff is why it's hard to directly compare/rank fraternities across the South, much less across the nation, and we haven't even gotten into the intangibles, like how many brothers are douchebags.

What I'm saying is, you can rank houses, but I'd say that only maybe half of the ranking can be made objectively. The other half is up to the individual.

[SthrnZeta]

Originally Posted by gtdxeric

The other criteria you mentioned can be objectively measured. If your house has a $100,000 social budget, there's no arguing that it's more (and thereby better) than the one next door or across the state that has a $50K budget.

These, however, come down to opinion. Is it better to have a huge new house, like several of the FSU houses, or a classic, but smaller house, like Fiji at Texas? How much better or worse? What campus leadership roles actually "mean something"? Student government president is usually the consensus most prestigious position on a campus, but the level of respect definitely varies from campus to campus. This kind of stuff is why it's hard to directly compare/rank fraternities across the South, much less across the nation, and we haven't even gotten into the intangibles, like how many brothers are douchebags.

What I'm saying is, you can rank houses, but I'd say that only maybe half of the ranking can be made objectively. The other half is up to the individual.

Excellent points!

[banditone]

Originally Posted by gtdxeric

The other criteria you mentioned can be objectively measured. If your house has a $100,000 social budget, there's no arguing that it's more (and thereby better) than the one next door or across the state that has a $50K budget.

These, however, come down to opinion. Is it better to have a huge new house, like several of the FSU houses, or a classic, but smaller house, like Fiji at Texas? How much better or worse? What campus leadership roles actually "mean something"? Student government president is usually the consensus most prestigious position on a campus, but the level of respect definitely varies from campus to campus. This kind of stuff is why it's hard to directly compare/rank fraternities across the South, much less across the nation, and we haven't even gotten into the intangibles, like how many brothers are douchebags.

What I'm saying is, you can rank houses, but I'd say that only maybe half of the ranking can be made objectively. The other half is up to the individual.

Yes, we all get it. Everything is subjective. But you have to start somewhere, and we are by no means the authorities on this stuff. It's just conversation fodder.