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I think a lot of the problems with the big Southern schools lie with numbers. With hundreds and hundreds of rushees, it's entirely possible and probable that well over a hundred girls will be overlooked due to sheer numbers.
As I mentioned, a girl from a small town or one where a certain sorority has no current members might be a perfect fit for ABC. All her friends know it and she does too--but the members have 6 days in which to choose girls they haven't met or been allowed to contact over the summer and they're probably going to go after the ones they know or know of, as well as the legacies or those whom the prominent alums push. How many times have I heard members of a "prominent" sorority say about a girl, "I wish I'd known her when she came through rush! I'd put my pin on her!" But they didn't then and the girl was cut.
Many, many girls don't get cut because the members didn't want them. They get cut simply because the sorority didn't know them beforehand and had no way to and the rules say they must cut a certain number each day (which of course, is necessary).
Lately I've had the chance to get acquainted again with several women I knew in college. Several were in what you'd call medium-tier or bottom-tier sororities, I guess. At the time, I never knew that they resented it. Now they discuss it heatedly, how they rushed with high expectations that came crashing down to earth fairly early in rush. How they knew if they got a bid from anyone other than the "Big 6" (Auburn) or the "Big 4" (Arkansas), they could kiss things like Mortar Board or Angel Flight or Miss Homecoming goodbye. How they accepted bids anyway but always desperately envied those who were chosen by the biggies. They don't regret their Greek experiences and made some friends and got nominally involved on campus but they'll always wonder what could've been.
So far, the Greek Chat women who are involved with the big schools are the majority of those who are saying, "Amen!" All this is hard to picture if you went to a school where the sororities rush the PNM. It's a pretty safe bet to say that at SEC schools, the PNM has to impress the sorority.
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