Okay, it looks like we've figured the mystery around the mutliplayer mode I previewed earlier and the online beta that some of you have been playing. Squad Deathmatch is new to Battlefield while what's going on in the beta is "old."
EA publicist Jino Talens says it better in this email:
Squad Deathmatch is a brand new mode to BFBC2, so we're still testing and building it out to the way we want it in the final game. The PS3 beta out now is a general term used in the industry when a game is released early to the public for testing purposes, but the game overall is still in early Alpha.
Glad we got that cleared up. Now I can get back to lusting after tanks.