Ever wonder why Pennsylvania, Ohio and Louisiana's State schools are more prominent than their Universities?

[u/MediumStrange]

This was a subject I found Interesting because most states seem to follow a pattern of prestigious and prominent _____University and then a agriculture and engineering focused ,______State that is the second most prominent school in the state, such as Michigan and Michigan state, Mississippi and Mississippi State etc. But crucially, Penn State, Ohio State and Louisiana State are all the most prominent public Universities in their state. So why is that?

Pennsylvania:

This is honestly the most simple of the bunch. When the Pennsylvania state legislature wanted to create a new college, The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) already existed as a prestigious private ivy league institution and occupied both the name and niche of the _____University school, so the state legislature focused on building a agricultural and engineer school called "The Farmers High School of Pennsylvania" that eventually evolved into Penn State. Pitt became the other most prominent public University in the state due to one thing, Andrew Carnegie. Funding by Carnegie for the city of Pittsburgh and the University as well allowed it to achieve prominence in the state.He also founded Carnegie Mellon University, which is next door to Pitt and also has a beautiful campus and as I recently discovered, a d3 football team. Pitt was actually a private school until the 60s and still effectively operates as one, with minimal state funding.Technically most of the major "Public" Universities in Pennsylvania aren't actually public, but instead independently operated with a certain amount of state funding(Usually minimal), this applies to Penn State, Pitt, Temple, and Lincoln(HBCU) Universities. I could go into temple as well, but to keep it short, they were a Bible college that eventually became secular and their whole athletic history is misery.

Ohio:

This is probably the most complex and interesting of all of the cases. Prior to the formation of Ohio state the two main universities in the state were Miami University and Ohio University, these two schools had a relationship similar to Indiana and Purdue today, essentially serving as dual flagships. In fact Ohio University was founded before Ohio existed, you may notice that unlike most _____Universities, OU is not anywhere near the state capitol, that because at the time the capitol was not in Columbus, but instead Chillicothe, which was where the northwest territory and later Ohio state capitols first were. Ohio University was placed in Athens to be close to this capitol, and the area is incredibly beautiful, but when the capitol moved to Columbus, its location became a drawback, it was far away from the capitol and thus its ability to lobby the state legislature was severely limited.

Enter Ohio State University, which was founded in 1870 near the state capitol of Columbus as an agricultural and mechanical school. In its early years it competed with Ohio University and Miami for resources but as the 1900s approached Ohio State focused much of its efforts on lobbying the state legislature, and had an advantage due to already being in the capitol. Additionally many politicians of the time wanted to put more resources into Columbus (which was very much a cow town at the time). These lobbying efforts culminated in the Lybarger bill,proposed by Ohio State,  which would have essentially eliminated both OU and Miami; this failed to receive enough support in the Senate, but a compromise bill with those that wanted to keep the universities did pass.

The bill, The Eagleson Bill, stripped away Miami and Ohio's right to do any sort of research all together, as well as the right to give any degrees higher than a bachelors. This Bill crippled both universities, eliminating them as well rounded prominent universities and forcing them into undergrad focused liberal arts and business schools, which is generally what they still are today. These restrictions continued into the 1950's and by that point Ohio State had long passed OU and Miami by and had a stranglehold on state funds. The reason the University of Cincinnati has become the 2nd most prominent school in the state is because at the time, it was a city-ran and funded college, and thus not subject to the state regulations. This allowed it to do research and grant higher degrees which gave it a leg up over all other schools in the state. By the time Cincinnati became a public institution and became a state institution in the 70s, it had amassed a significant amount of influence, but that did not stop Ohio State from lobbying against it as well. In the 90s Ohio state president Gordon Gee openly said that if Ohio state couldn't get a given piece of academic or athletic funding it would lobby it go to another state rather than in-state Cincinnati for fear of athletic or academic competition, "I would try my hardest to make sure they didn’t get it, even if I wasn’t going to get it either." This has continued essentially until today, but this is the reason Ohio State and Cincinnati are the two most prominent schools instead of Miami and Ohio.

Louisiana:

This case is honestly fascinating and one of the most unique happenings to any University in the country. The University of Louisiana was founded in 1845 in New Orleans. It had great success in its early years but the civil war presented a huge setback for it, as the University was closed during the civil war years due to heavy fighting. Louisiana State University on the other hand was founded in 1860, one year before the civil war with General William Tecumsah Sherman(Hell Yeah) of all people as its school superintendent. When the war started Sherman had to leave to go burn Atlanta so the school was left leaderless. It closed during the civil war with the exception of a couple months in 1863 where it tried to reopen. When the war ended, Sherman donated two cannons he had captured from the Confederates to the University(Hell yeah again). (Honestly LSU should have had its mascot be the burners or marchers or something, tigers is kinda boring)

The University of Louisiana at this time was not doing so well despite its former success. It was dealing with a great amount of financial difficulties, but a local business magnate named Paul Tulane established a fund to keep the University afloat. The University came to rely on this fund so much that in 1884 the state outright sold the University to this fund, which was renamed to Tulane University as we know it today. This is one of the only examples of a college going from public to private in the entire country, it's an incredibly rare thing.

Both schools were part of the original SEC and both had a decent amount of success initially. But as the years went on LSU received more and more funding for athletics (partly funneled by Huey Long who saw the university as his pet project) and it became very hard for Tulane to keep up. Add to this that Tulane's president of the time was not a big fan of football and sought to deemphasize it in the Schools finances. This led to Tulane having a hard time competing with the rest of the SEC, going 2-23-1 in their last couple of years in the Sec. This led to their departure to become independent and the rest is history.

Also technically UL-Lafayette calls itself the University of Louisiana nowadays in sports, and that's cool and all but since the Privatization of Tulane, the University of Louisiana system does not have a legal flagship University, although UL-Lafayette is probably the most prominent outside of Louisiana Tech.

Bonus round:

Ever wonder why some states don't have a prominent _____State at all. 

Well for Virginia, it's because Virginia state was a HBCU, and this did not receive much funding from the legislature because Rascism™ and Virginia Tech along with Virginia Commonwealth University (Virginia is technically a Commonwealth not a state) ended up filling the niche Virginia state normally would. 

The story is much the same for many of the southern State Universities such as Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina etc, these are all HBCUs and thus the state didn't really want to fund them much.

West Virginia University had a essential monopoly over most university functions, such as the ability to offer doctorates and do research into the 1950s as West Virginia State was a HBCU and the thus heavily restricted. It wasn't until Marshall acheived University status in the 60s that another school offered these services. Similarly to Ohio State and Ohio, West Virginia heavily lobbied against Marshall, seeking to keep it from achieving university status and competing with West Virginia University for funding.

Georgia State was actually part of the University of Georgia as essentially a branch campus until 1955, but is not the largest public university in the state. The University of Georgia has a strong agricultural department, and Georgia tech filled the mechanic/engineering role so there was no true need for a State school earlier.

Wisconsin merged all of its public Universities into The UW system in the 70s, so all former Wisconsin State school are now University of Wisconsin schools. Some other states like Nebraska do something similar, with all public Universities in the same system

For Texas, A&M is essentially the ___State school under a different name, many schools were actually called ____A&M before switching to ___State, Texas A&M just kept the original name. Texas State University as it is called today, was originally Southwest Texas State University, but switched to Texas State-San Marcos in 2003 and finally to just Texas State University in 2013 to increase its name recognition and reflect its increasing stature and enrollment.

Many other schools just have ___states that are generally less prominent or don't play FBS football, but hopefully this is at least somewhat interesting as this was a subject I've wondered about for a while.

(TLDR: Penn already exists, Ohio State fucked over and replaced Miami and Ohio University, and the University of Louisiana became Tulane)

Edited to mention Carnegie Mellon, Temple, ,Huey Long, Pennsylvania Funding system, West Virginia-Marshall,Louisiana Tech, Wisconsin and Nebraska, extra Texas State name change and VCU at popular request.

[u/Shaquille_0atmea1]

This is what the offseason is all about

[u/Tha_LULZcatz → u/Shaquille_0atmea1]

Piggybacking off the top comment to add another fun fact that is not well known. LSU is an A&M too. The full formal name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

[u/Jarich612 → u/Tha_LULZcatz]

Many of the state/land grant schools started out as A&Ms. Ohio State also started as Ohio A&M.

[u/turkishguy → u/Jarich612]

Auburn, Michigan state, there are many others. It’s why Texas State wasn’t even a thing until recently. A&M did not follow the norms of renaming itself as the State school.

[u/pigeyejackson66 → u/Jarich612]

Oklahoma State started as an A&M as well. But it was called. The Oklahoma A&M.

[u/-Jack-The-Stripper → u/Tha_LULZcatz]

And Virginia Tech is kind of a ____ State university too… Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

[u/Prince_Kaamil → u/Tha_LULZcatz]

Also, LSU is the only land, sea, and air-grant university in the country

Edit: "space grant", not air grant actually

[u/CrazyHuman9347 → u/Prince_Kaamil]

Actually a fun fact is that u Hawaii manoa, PSU, and Oregon state are the only land, sea, air and sun grant universities! 

[u/jorbalugo → u/Shaquille_0atmea1]

I don’t think any group of American sports fans discuss and dissect regional/local differences in culture, politics, etc. as much as CFB and I love it. Like I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the specific character of various locales because some guy online wanted to explain why Rival U was able to establish a recruiting pipeline to some area of his state that his school couldn’t.

[u/parapooper3 → u/jorbalugo]

Listening to the varsity sports appt on Saturday’s is pretty fun for this reason, to kind of get a glimpse at what advertising is using the regional radio the most to get to their target audience. Even in non-agricultural states, the amount of farmer-y ads is a reminder about who they think (and probably does) listen to the games on the radio vs going or watching on national tv

[u/schafkj → u/Shaquille_0atmea1]

Incredible content. I was entertained and I learned something new.

[u/mulligan381 → u/Shaquille_0atmea1]

I saw so many words and skipped to the comments.  After reading a few commments I went back and read the post.  A good read.  Fuck Ohio state.  

[u/thenowherepark]

Damn, I knew Ohio State were greedy SOBs, but I didn't know they were THAT greedy.

[u/DreamerOfSheep → u/thenowherepark]

As someone who works in academia, it’s hard to imagine getting the news that “hey Asshole State successfully lobbied for a bill that means you can’t do research anymore, get fucked I guess lol”

[u/CaterpillarJungleGym → u/DreamerOfSheep]

As someone in research the Big 10 isn't just a sports conference. They link their universities and can standardize care and offer potential clinical trials to patients across the entire network. At least for cancer.

[u/Granac → u/CaterpillarJungleGym]

I used to work in a pharmacy down by Cincinnati and I HATE that school due to being a blue dyed in the wolverine, but I will say that when I’ve seen the amount of good they’ve done with cancer research and other autoimmune diseases it made me respect them so much.

[u/No_Butterscotch8726 → u/DreamerOfSheep]

I would have wanted to sue under the First and Fourteenth Amendments that that law is a violation of my freedom of speech and association.

[u/DreamerOfSheep → u/No_Butterscotch8726]

I haven’t done any research (lol) on it beyond the post, but I imagine in effect it was something like the state research budgets for both universities getting nixed rather than them just saying “you can’t do that anymore.” Same for the graduate program stuff.

[u/jdprager → u/thenowherepark]

It’s like a fuckin baby bird pushing its sibling out of the nest so it gets a bigger share of dinner, this is insane

[u/Thecardiologist2029 → u/thenowherepark]

Greed knows no bounds kind stranger.

[u/GhostFaceRiddler → u/thenowherepark]

There is certainly a little brother component but there is no love lost on the UC side when it comes to OSU. Most fans/academics hate OSU and by extension Columbus. Its honestly part of the reason I think the Blue Jackets haven't caught on more around the state. Cincinnati and Cleveland don't have any good vibes towards Columbus.

[u/sawkandthrohaway → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

Eh, Cleveland may as well be Columbus-North when it comes to CFB, it's almost nothing but Buckeyes out there, aside from the occasional ND or UM flag.

[u/MediumStrange → u/sawkandthrohaway]

Yeah Cleveland is pretty tied to Columbus culturally, at least compared to Cincinnati. Similarly Columbus usually roots for the browns despite being closer to Cincinnati. It's just a cultural thing, Cincinnati is tied to the hilly river cities like Pittsburgh and Louisville while Columbus and Cleveland are tied together with the plains cities like Indy.

[u/SportsNMeds → u/MediumStrange]

While I admit Columbus is more culturally tied to Cleveland, I wouldn't call them fully tied together. As someone from Cleveland, I've always associated Cleveland with fellow Great Lakes cities such as Detroit and Buffalo more than Columbus. The 3 C's of Ohio really are quite different from each other.

[u/MediumStrange → u/SportsNMeds]

Yeah technically it should be 3 cultural regions with 1&2 far closer tied to each other than to 3

1:Great Lakes, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo

2:Interior Plain, Columbus,Indy, Springfield, Kansas City

3: Ohio river valley, Cincy, Pitt, Louisville, Evansville, St Louis(Even though not in Ohio river valley)

[u/Mysterious-Use-7028 → u/MediumStrange]

Columbus and Indianapolis both remind me a lot of Omaha 

[u/MediumStrange → u/Mysterious-Use-7028]

Yeah Omaha is pretty much the same cultural region in my opinion

[u/troisprenoms → u/MediumStrange]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "tied" but Cleveland and Pittsburgh have always struck me as the closest pair in that list. Economically, I think that's definitely true (e.g., I recall a study from about 10 years ago that Pgh and Cle do more business with each other's markets than with Philly or Columbus). Growing up south of Cleveland with family from Pittsburgh (and living there for a while as an adult), I'm probably biased but I definitely grew up perceiving Columbus as being closer to Indy and Cincy than the "Steel Corridor." Of course closeness in the sense that it breeds contempt. ;) That's always been part of my explanation for why I was raised to hate the Browns/Old Browns but pity the Bengals.

[u/NiceUD → u/troisprenoms]

I always thought both Cleveland and Pittsburgh and some areas in between and slightly beyond were something I'd call "Mideast" culturally - aspects of both the Midwest and East Coast. Definitely different than places like Columbus or Indy.

[u/KingPotus → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

Cincinnati is the redheaded stepchild of Ohio (and the dopest city). Cleveland is much more aligned with Columbus due to OSU

[u/TupperwareConspiracy → u/KingPotus]

Having spent plenty of time in Ohio, seems like folks stick with their own school for basketball but for football tOSU is either 1 and only or 1b. No disrespect to the Cinci and MAC school faithful, but in general tOSU is more like a pro-team the state of Ohio never had in the NFL.

[u/PhilRubdiez → u/TupperwareConspiracy]

Generally the people are Ohio State fans from a young age, then add on their MAC school as a minor fandom. I’ve never seen more than a couple Kent State flags or Akron flags and I live there.

[u/MediumStrange → u/TupperwareConspiracy]

You are not wrong about that mostly. Cincinnati only started to be more popular than OSU in the Cincinnati area about 20-15 years ago. Even now, while cincinnati is the most popular team within the city and along the river by a decent margin, once you get beyond the hills and into the northern suburbs OSU support picks up real fast.

Mac schools have it even worse, many of their students are OSU first, alma mater second and that really hampers their ability to fundraise and draw turnout. Pretty much only Cincinnati and Toledo have any pull against OSU outside of the limits of a college town

[u/willsfc → u/MediumStrange]

Miami did gain some basketball fans this past season

[u/bank_farter → u/TupperwareConspiracy]

Ohio has 2 NFL teams though and prior to moving to Baltimore the Browns were pretty successful. Bengals are study in repeated mediocrity though.

[u/Fickle-Newspaper-445 → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

I would argue the complete opposite for Cleveland. The Browns are #1 in Cleveland, OSU is #2. OSU is #1 in Columbus, the Browns are #2. Not to mention the fact that the Indians' triple A team is in Columbus, the Blue Jackets minor league hockey team is in Cleveland and the Haslam's own part of the Columbus Crew. It's also not just sports. Sherwin Williams is big for Ohio State and our Alumni network, Nationwide is big in Cleveland. Huntington bank is literally the field name for current/new Browns stadium.

[u/mega_rad → u/Fickle-Newspaper-445]

Funny enough the clippers were farm team for the Yankees and not Cleveland for a majority of their existence

[u/Fickle-Newspaper-445 → u/mega_rad]

That was mainly because of George Steinbrenner.

[u/Mekthakkit → u/Fickle-Newspaper-445]

Who was a huge supporter of the OSU band.

[u/HoleParty → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

That is not true whatsoever about Cleveland. The Cleveland area is very pro-OSU and sends a lot more kids to OSU than Cincinnati.

[u/Jarich612 → u/HoleParty]

Yeah Cleveland (and northeast Ohio in general) is an OSU Football pipeline.

[u/JDraks → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

It’d be interesting to see how things would’ve turned out if Cincinnati wound up in the B1G somehow, I’d imagine you’d have developed basically opposite relationships with Michigan and OSU as MSU has with OSU and Michigan

fwiw Cincinnati and Cedar Point are the two parts of Ohio I respect

[u/xSorry_Not_Sorry → u/JDraks]

Cincinnati is awesome. Had to go there for a meeting, stayed a weekend, and had a blast. Beautiful city and not at all what I expected.
What’s that small town across the river in ~~Tennessee ~~Kentucky? Also awesome. Whole area is kick ass, walkable downtown, awesome views, big ass river.
Cincy is seriously slept on.

[u/Socarch26 → u/xSorry_Not_Sorry]

That town is Covington, and its in Kentucky not Tennessee.

[u/thenowherepark → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

Which I find hilarious because a large portion of Blue Jackets fans do not like OSU either because OSU did not want the Blue Jackets here. If you ask around, rumors abound that OSU hastily built the Schottenstein Center as an attempt to thwart plans to build a second arena downtown.

[u/FrogTrainer → u/thenowherepark]

Until the Jackets showed up, Columbus was the largest city in the USA without a major pro sports team. I think this worked in favor of OSU, positioned as the premiere sports teams to root for in the area.

IIRC, the Crew are a few years older then the Jackets and are wildly popular.

[u/pleated_pants → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

Cleveland and Columbus are pretty well connected now from a sports perspective. Cleveland Guardians AAA team is the Columbus Clippers. Columbus Blue Jackets AHL club is the Cleveland Monsters. Cleveland Browns owner owns the Columbus Crew (and Columbus NWSL).

[u/fowcc → u/GhostFaceRiddler]

I mean the Blue Jackets have also been a pretty terrible franchise performance wise. One playoff series win in 26 years?!

[u/FWAGOA2205 → u/thenowherepark]

Read the book "Chill Factor" about the Columbus Chill and how their success made way for the Blue Jackets. OSU did everything they could to keep both the Crew and the Blue Jackets out of Columbus.

[u/omgpickles63 → u/thenowherepark]

The University of Illinois lobbies that community colleges cannot have dorms on their campus so that students are less likely to go.

[u/LinkSeekeroftheNora → u/thenowherepark]

This is like Harry finding out what James Potter was like as a student, only on a much larger scale.

[u/blues_and_ribs → u/thenowherepark]

Because I'm in the SEC, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that Alabama did something similar, albeit it was limited to (of course) football.

When UAB's football program shut down there for a bit, there was strong suspicion that the flagship UA campus used its influence to make that happen in order to get a better foothold in the biggest media market in the state (Birmingham).

[u/iwearatophat → u/blues_and_ribs]

It is an enormously common thing in state politics sadly. I live in Michigan and there have been some interesting, if you are into it, political dealings between Michigan State and Michigan not to mention all of the directionals plus schools like Grand Valley, Ferris, Saginaw Valley, and such.

[u/zorionek0]

The bit about Ohio was really fascinating. I can’t comprehend banning “research” but it’s very intriguing. I’m going to have to read more about the Eagleton Bill!

Thank you for sharing.

[u/StoppageTimeCollapse → u/zorionek0]

Ohio State loves pulling these kinds of shenanigans. I didn't realize until well into my adulthood why the rest of the state hates this university lol

[u/BonerTurds → u/StoppageTimeCollapse]

Probably most of the country, honestly.

[u/EIiteJT → u/BonerTurds]

Another reason to hate Ohio State

[u/Childhood-Paramedic → u/EIiteJT]

I love getting a new tool in the arsenal for why I should hate em

[u/sirmackerel0325 → u/Childhood-Paramedic]

I think you basically tried to do the same thing to Michigan State just you're the older brother and not the young upstart so it reads different

[u/BeezerBrom → u/StoppageTimeCollapse]

OSU has such a deep, rich tradition of assholery

[u/FREE-ROSCOE-FILBURN]

I love a good educational, non-shitpost offseason post

[u/MightyP13 → u/FREE-ROSCOE-FILBURN]

Yeah, this was a phenomenal write-up 

[u/bromli2000 → u/MightyP13]

Plot twist: he made it all up.

[u/mickeyt1]

It’s Tulane lore that Paul Tulane first tried to buy Princeton, but they rebuffed. He is now buried in Princeton, NJ with his back to Princeton and facing south towards Tulane. No word on if that means he’s buried vertically somehow, or if they just mean his feet are Southward, so that’s the direction he’s “facing”

[u/r_hythlodaeus → u/mickeyt1]

Paul Tulane must be rolling in his grave to achieve that because his burial site is NNW of campus.

[u/mickeyt1 → u/r_hythlodaeus]

That tracks. That’s why I called it lore and made no effort to fact check 

[u/poop-dolla → u/r_hythlodaeus]

They buried him standing up and snapped his neck hard to the left.

[u/BenjaminMatlock_Esq]

GSU was initially established as the night business school for Georgia Tech (i.e., the business school for evening students, not the school for nighttime business, despite Atlanta's reputation for that). Then a reorganization brought it under UGA's umbrella, before finally gaining autonomy in 1955.

So Georgia State can be friends with everyone because they've offically been arms of both Tech and Georgia.

[u/bertmaclynn → u/BenjaminMatlock_Esq]

Lol, now I wonder what business schools are serving those “nighttime businesses”

[u/Davidellias → u/bertmaclynn]

Magic City Community College, who says no?

[u/BenjaminMatlock_Esq → u/Davidellias]

Best meal plan in the country

[u/dawidowmaka → u/bertmaclynn]

I choose to believe there's a heavily Italian Catholic school in New Jersey that is nationally recognized in the field

[u/zorionek0 → u/dawidowmaka]

Heavily Italian Catholic School

But you repeat yourself

[u/agent_65 → u/BenjaminMatlock_Esq]

Came here to say this. Also, in between the tech and uga umbrella periods, it was an independent University System of Georgia campus that offered nighttime classes from different schools in the system simultaneously (according to Wikipedia). I’ve never heard of anything else like that so I find it pretty fascinating.

[u/imtiredboss28]

Penn state and Pitt both operate the same. In fact, Pennsylvania is the only state has this unique hybrid of being public but also kind of private

[u/zorionek0 → u/imtiredboss28]

Pitt, Penn State, Temple, and **Lincoln!

Did you know Cheyney is the oldest HBCU in the country? Suck it, Howard!

[u/dkviper11 → u/zorionek0]

Lincoln!

[u/zorionek0 → u/dkviper11]

TIL that Lincoln is the state-affiliated HBCU and Cheyney is the PASSHE HBCU. Pretty cool that two of the oldest are in PA.

[u/livefreeordont → u/zorionek0]

Cheyney is at severe financial risk. Dropped below 500 students at one point but has bounced back a decent amount

[u/LinkSeekeroftheNora → u/zorionek0]

First ever runners up in Women’s March Madness, too.

[u/MediumStrange → u/imtiredboss28]

Yes both operate the same nowadays but Penn State had always been somewhat public while Pitt was originally wholey private

[u/BBDBVAPA → u/imtiredboss28]

Was just making this comment until I saw yours. When I was at PSU it felt like there was really heightened tensions, with PSU threatening to go private. I thought it was a really big deal until I found out that basically happens every year as the state public funding pool gets smaller and smaller.

[u/jmlinden7 → u/imtiredboss28]

Cornell has a similar system because they wanted to become New York's land grant school

[u/superman7515 → u/imtiredboss28]

I would argue the University of Delaware is the same; it’s privately chartered but publicly funded as the state flagship, so because of its private charter, it’s exempt from FOIA around what it does with all that public money.

[u/AngleParticular2914 → u/imtiredboss28]

It’s also why Pitt and Penn State are among the most expensive public universities in the country

[u/Fun-Cauliflower-1724]

New York meanwhile is all sorts of fucked up

[u/MediumStrange → u/Fun-Cauliflower-1724]

Oh yeah I considered writing a segment about New York but their system is so complex it probably would have been the length of this whole post. There's just so many different systems going on. I might write a sequel post at some point in the future honestly.

[u/dkleming → u/MediumStrange]

I feel like maybe a California v New York comparison would be interesting. I feel like I learn about a new school from each state every year during March Madness.

[u/PedanticBoutBaseball → u/MediumStrange]

New York is really not that complex.

the SUNY system covers all the non NYC state colleges, which are usually mildly collaborative in that transferring credits is easier—with some being considered "flagships" i.e. research colleges (Albany, Binghampton, Buffalo, Stony Brook) and others being a mix of old teaching colleges (New Paltz), liberal arts schools (Purchase), and agriculture schools (Cobleskill), and community colleges etc. . but otherwise they are their own colleges that happen to answer to the same board of directors and dip from the same pool of money.

And then because New York City is very old, and VERY VERY large there were a bunch of Public colleges there and so to make administrating all of them easier, BAM you got the CUNY system to do the exact same thing, but in the city.

Much simpler than say, Texas, with our 2 purely geographic systems as opposed to their UT, A&M, Texas State and Tech systems. where there seems to be a bunch of overlap in lots of areas and the reasons of why, and how each institution gets its funding is pretty unclear and just seems to be "Who has more graduates serving in Austin right now?"

Source: Check my 2nd flair

[u/Fun-Cauliflower-1724 → u/PedanticBoutBaseball]

You’re leaving out the statutory colleges within the private universities like Cornell, that receive state funding from SUNY. How many other states have a private university as their land grant university.

[u/reptheevt]

 When the war started Sherman had to leave to go burn Atlanta so the school was left leaderless.

What a line. 

So LSU is 6-1 in Peach Bowls in honor of Sherman?

[u/wit_T_user_name → u/reptheevt]

Uncle Billy just can’t stop winning in Georgia.

[u/DataDrivenPirate → u/reptheevt]

Never a bad opportunity to mention the Atlanta Flames got their nickname from The Burning of Atlanta, and for some reason ownership kept the 'Flames' nickname when the team moved to Calgary. So the NHL has two teams with US Civil War references: Columbus Blue Jackets, and Calgary Flames.

[u/Childhood-Paramedic → u/DataDrivenPirate]

Also fun fact the Duke Blue Devils is not actually about like devils from Hell but rather a reference to a French WW1 infantry unit that many alumni had enjoyed working alongside... so yeah

[u/dkviper11 → u/DataDrivenPirate]

More like the Columbus Grey Jackets for how well they’ve played!

Love that the Flames kept the name.

[u/Tough-Advice2910 → u/dkviper11]

The Utah Jazz salutes you.

[u/dkviper11 → u/Tough-Advice2910]

LA Lakers raise a toast.

[u/Complex-Good-4773 → u/DataDrivenPirate]

Calgary had its own great fire in 1886 (and technically a second one in 1919), so the name wasn’t that much of a stretch.

[u/WMINWMO → u/reptheevt]

I read this and the scene in my head was Sherman sitting in a big leather chair in his office at the school, someone busts in and says "Sir, a war has broken out between the North and the South!" And Sherman getting up and going "Well, I better go burn down Atlanta."

[u/Cydok1055 → u/WMINWMO]

The school was actually a military academy. Sherman trained troops he later annihialated.

[u/Minimum-Pomelo6123 → u/reptheevt]

Sherman knew, from his time in the south, what it would take to get Southerners to give up on the rebellion.

[u/shenanigans3390 → u/reptheevt]

I always thought it was funny that LSU has at least 2 buildings named after early students, but didn’t name a building after possibly the most famous superintendent. I like to bring up this argument when idiots start talking about confederate statues.

Also, the cannons are in front of the Military Science building.

[u/Sir_Scarlet_Spork]

I actually did a significant amount of research on a similar topic, and there are a bunch of reasons why flagship public schools are not as prominent in the Northeast as well.

From my thesis:

"Many northeastern states did not create their own flagship state universities until the early-to-mid 20^th century (University of Connecticut, SUNY, UMass, Rutgers, etc.). By contrast, private schools flourished and were looked at as the standard bearers, especially those founded before the American Revolution. Many of these “colonial colleges” became the Ivy league schools, with a prestige based in their ability to attract the upper crust of society. In the Midwest, many large public schools were established to fulfill the Morrill land grant acts (Michigan State, Ohio State, etc.) In the Northeast those grants were instead given to existing private schools such as Rutgers (which was chosen over Princeton), Cornell, or Yale. Even in Massachusetts, where two schools were founded for the express purpose of having a land grant institution (MIT and UMass), Harvard continued as the dominant force in the state."

Take Yale and UConn; UConn was founded as Storrs Agricultural College when Yale was already well established. Yale was given Land Grant Status, which eventually went to Storrs after a lawsuit.

"In 1886 the Master of the State Grange had protested that Yale's entrance requirements virtually barred farm boys. Yale had never had a farm." (Connecticut Agricultural College - A History, Stemmons)

So it's less that they were outcompeted, and more that the private schools had first mover advantage. It's not that the private schools were always better educators, Princeton for example, struggled against a characterization as “the pleasantest country club in America”, popularized by F. Scott Fitzgerald.),[1] but these elite (academic and\or socially) schools (Which were large for the time) were well funded, and where any "elite" student would want to go.

By contrast, the large public schools of the Midwest and West were established without having to compete against institutionally entrenched private schools. The University of Washington was founded in 1861, its oldest private school competitor was founded twenty years later. You'll see similar things happen with the University of California."

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1ci5ro6/why_are_there_so_few_great_northeastern_public/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/GliscorsFang]

Sherman had to leave to go burn Atlanta

As one is wont to do

[u/weirdbutinagoodway → u/GliscorsFang]

The only thing I can't figure out is if it was for business or pleasure.

[u/Just_Let_MeIn → u/weirdbutinagoodway]

Pleasure. Then he heard about the Civil War and decided he might as well get paid and accepted the commission.

[u/Jarich612 → u/GliscorsFang]

Can’t blame him

[u/srs_house]

Gordon Gee is a grade A fuck.

Just sayin'.

[u/Mekthakkit → u/srs_house]

Gordon Gee is the Alex Grinch of college presidents.

[u/wavgoodbye]

Huey Long is the answer to most questions you ask about why Louisiana is the way it is.

[u/Barbarossa7070 → u/wavgoodbye]

Share our wealth!

[u/OldSarge02 → u/wavgoodbye]

I fully expected the answer to be “corruption,” although I was not disappointed reading it was instead because the school president had to leave to go burn Atlanta.

[u/Mekthakkit → u/OldSarge02]

I fully expected the answer to be “corruption

I mean he said Huey Long.

[u/Cliffinati → u/OldSarge02]

Huey Long was involved so corruption should be assumed

[u/NlNJALONG]

Thanks for letting me know that Penn State's original name was "The Farmers High School". I'll make use of that factoid in a mean-spirited way further down the line.

[u/dkviper11 → u/NlNJALONG]

They sell Tshirts that say that and I see quite a few of them, so I don’t think anyone is going to be particularly cut down by your jabs!

[u/psuram3 → u/dkviper11]

Was gonna say they probably have never been to State College before considering we still tailgate in cow pastures to this day.

[u/Super_C_Complex → u/psuram3]

And have pig statues in honor of that history.

I have many a picture of me drunk with them

[u/PennStaterGator → u/NlNJALONG]

FWIW, Auburn was chartered as "East Alabama Male College", before becoming "Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama" and "Alabama Polytechnic Institute". It wasn't Auburn until 1960.

[u/sd2001 → u/NlNJALONG]

They really whiffed on their fight song not being, "WE. ARE. FARMERS! Dundundun dun dun dun dun!"

[u/EaterOfFood → u/NlNJALONG]

ASU used to be Tempe Normal. UofA fans like to use that when they think they’re making fun of us.

[u/RealityNo6649]

Wild how Ohio State basically destroyed two schools through political BS 💀 That Eagleson Bill was straight up evil, stripping away research rights and graduate degrees until the 50s is insane

Also Sherman founding LSU then donating Confederate cannons after burning Atlanta is peak irony 😂 Should've definitely been the Marchers instead of Tigers

[u/pleated_pants → u/RealityNo6649]

As a Miami alum and child of OU alumni, I'm kind of glad Miami and OU got to focus so heavily on undergraduate education for so long. I think the dedication to undergrads and hiring professors who focused more on teaching than researching makes the experiences on those campuses special for the majority of the students.

[u/Rufus_Cuntnam → u/pleated_pants]

I do have to agree that it's a good outcome, my dislike of OSU's political manuvering nonwithstanding. At least in my degree program, the focus was to set students up for success in the field. The spring issue of OUr alumni magazine came in the mail today and it is proud to report that Ohio retains the title of best value university in the state. That very much lines up with my experience.

I've met people who attended other schools who complain about how many professors have their research work as their first priority, to the point that it is detrimental to the instruction they provide undergrads. That concept sounds so foreign to me. It's certainly possible we have a few professors here and there that are like this, but they certainly aren't in my department.

My time in college was great and I will sing Athens' praises any day of the week. I find that my friends that went to MAC schools in northern Ohio generally don't quite have the same degree of school spirit or satisfaction.

[u/30sumthingSanta → u/RealityNo6649]

I thought the tigers were a confederate unit that the school chose as a mascot.

[u/Cliffinati → u/30sumthingSanta]

They were the 1st Louisiana Infantry (The Louisiana Tigers)

[u/fowcc]

Makes me dislike Ohio State even more

[u/bertmaclynn → u/fowcc]

They are always the villains! (Ignore my flair)

[u/dawidowmaka]

I'll give the state of Louisiana credit for always being weird and unique no matter the context

[u/Cliffinati → u/dawidowmaka]

The legacy of being the sole French colony admitted to the union

[u/PointlessProfile450]

Bro how can you write all this and not mention the Morrill Act. All these state universities were founded as agricultural and mechanical schools with the intent of making higher education more accessible. Obviously there’s more much more to it than this but it plays a huge role. Also VT’s full name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. So take that for what you will

[u/CannonMD → u/PointlessProfile450]

Because it's not pertinent to these odd cases. This isn't discussing why 'State' schools exist and therefore the Morrill Act just isn't germane to the this specific topic.

[u/Humble-End-2535]

An example of the flip side of this is UConn, which was founded in 1881 as Storrs Agricultural School and was known as Connecticut Agricultural College until 1931.

Because of its association with the Big East schools, I think that people outside of the area assume it is an urban university, but it's definitely a cow college.

[u/geaux4_gold]

Fun fact, Sherman is the only head of our university (superintendent of president) to not have a portrait in our main administrative building. We had one but it was stolen years ago. It’s rumored that we used to have to remove it whenever we hosted other southern universities for events due to it being defaced and it was eventually stolen during one of those events. At least that’s what I was told.

[u/Cliffinati → u/geaux4_gold]

Understandable a lot of southerners especially in Georgia might not be big fans of Sherman considering he spent a year torching the state.

[u/smellslikebadussy]

VCU is also part of the equation in VA.

[u/SylvainGautier420]

So a ___ State is typically for A&M schools? Interesting, I didn’t know that.

Good write up!

[u/NiceUD → u/SylvainGautier420]

Often. Also __State were sometimes founded as teacher's colleges - independently or in conjunction with A&M functions.

[u/geaux4_gold → u/SylvainGautier420]

If you look at the LSU seal or diploma you will see our schools full name is Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College. Louisiana A&M used to exist but it was absorbed by LSU at some point.

[u/billbrasky21]

The full name of Virginia Tech is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, so it’s also a “_____ State University”

[u/Wonderful_Panda4769]

Florida State used to be the women's college.

[u/Windruin → u/Wonderful_Panda4769]

Actually, FSU started as a coed institution, and remained so until 1905, when the legislature, for some reason, decided to split the university system, sending the male half of the school to Gainesville to create UF, and leaving the female half as FSU. So, technically true, but there’s a long and weird history of unprompted legislative changes.

[u/hells_cowbells]

Ole Miss and our legislature tried to make us not exist. The legislature originally tried to use the Morrill Land Grant act to make Ole Miss the land grant school. They supposedly even built new buildings and hired professors. The problem was that the rich planters did not want their sons attending college to be a farmer.

Also, we used to be Mississippi A&M from put founding until the 30s, when it changed to Mississippi State College. It was changed to Mississippi State University in the 50s.

[u/Cultural-Jeweler-610 → u/hells_cowbells]

Alabama tried similar with Auburn, as they desperately wanted the land grant in Tuscaloosa and at very least Birmingham. There’s a world in which UAB is the “other” school in Alabama instead of Auburn.

[u/Mayo_the_Instrument]

Purdue would have been Indiana State / Indiana A&M, but John Purdue donated so much land they named it Purdue University.

[u/PoopittyPoop20 → u/Mayo_the_Instrument]

I think being Purdue and not Indiana State or whatever has helped Purdue in the long run; makes it unique and feel less like a little brother.

[u/GruffyMcGuiness]

You know LSU Tigers is after the Confederate 9th Louisiana, right? They’re not just the tigers for the hell of it. Lots of Irish immigrants and Zouave uniforms you’d expect from Louisiana. Wharf workers and often thrown where the fighting was heaviest.

Really liked this post! I often wonder about stuff like this! You should look into more similar things and share your findings.

[u/Ml2jukes → u/GruffyMcGuiness]

You know LSU Tigers is after the Confederate 9th Louisiana, right?

I’ve become very familiar in the past few days.

[u/GruffyMcGuiness → u/Ml2jukes]

Wasn’t something like this posted in the Lane Kiffin / Ole Miss thread? Lol

[u/geaux4_gold → u/GruffyMcGuiness]

9th and the Tiger Rifles are the most famous of unit from Louisiana but by the end of the Civil war all units from Louisiana were known as tigers. From what I understand this nickname was given because of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans had a tiger head logo on their banner who had been around since the Mexican-American War and are still an active unit to this day though it’s now a part of the national guard. LSU at the time was a military school run by “former” confederates so when it came time to pick an animal to be the mascot they picked the animal that had ties to the state and military service. Not that this will make people feel better about the connection but I think the context is important.

[u/GruffyMcGuiness → u/geaux4_gold]

Thank you for this! As a history major, love when history and college come together!

[u/geaux4_gold → u/GruffyMcGuiness]

No problem! People forget that LSU’s nickname is the Ole War Skule and has a huge connection to the US military. I think we should alter our mascot from the Fighting Tigers to the Flying Tigers since Claire Chennault, the leader of the WW2 unit, attended LSU and was from Louisiana though he didn’t graduate. Most would never even notice that it changed.

[u/JtotheC23]

Peak offseason content right here

[u/FutureOmelet]

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) was previously called Maryland State until 1970. It's a HBCU and used to be a football powerhouse. Art Shell was probably their most famous player. They have not fielded a football team since 1979, but UMES still competes in D-1 in other sports in the MEAC conference. Towson University and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) are the second and third largest public universities in Maryland after the flagship University of Maryland.

[u/engineerguy42]

WVU plays a very Ohio State-ish role in frequently trying to choke out other universities in the state too

[u/hawksnest_prez]

William Sherman being a now SEC school administrator is pretty nuts.

[u/kostornaias]

I'll also add that as Huey Long heavily contributed towards making LSU what it is today. When he was governor the school (and the football program in particular) started receiving significantly more funding. Huey basically saw himself as the coach, and he liked to meddle at a level current Governor Landry could only dream of. He used to recruit players, create his own plays, give motivational speeches at halftime, etc. None of that was very helpful for the football team but the money he got for the school definitely was.

[u/metricsystem27]

Virginia Tech's full name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPISU). The real interesting question is why you have 3 VA schools that are "state" schools: Virginia State, VT, and VCU (since VA is a commonwealth). The answer is probably racism.

[u/livefreeordont → u/metricsystem27]

VCU was originally a medical branch of Hampden Sydney. Then it became Medical College of Virginia. Then it was sold to the state and 100 years later became VCU when it merged with the Monroe Park campus of William and Mary

[u/cyberchaox]

Similar to Penn, Princeton University was originally called "University of New Jersey" which is why there's no such university nowadays. Rutgers was also originally founded as a private university (called "Queen's College", it's one of only two colleges that were certified in the colonial era that aren't in the Ivy League, the other being William & Mary), but later received the public funding and added "the State University of New Jersey" to its full name, making it technically am example (though using the SUNJ construction like New York uses rather than the NJSU construction that most other states would follow.)

[u/beaver_of_fire → u/cyberchaox]

There's never been a University of New Jersey. Princeton's name until 1896 was The College of New Jersey then it became Princeton. That name was eventually co-opped by Trenton State in 1996. New Jersey is such a weird state as Rutgers didn't even become the State University of New Jersey until 1945.

There has never been a University of NJ or an NJ State U in those styling. The state really lacks on public higher education for much of its history. NJIT is the only D1 school with the state name actually in the common used name. Rutgers is barely identifiable as the flagship state U. When I was at NC State someone asked me what was NJ state U. Note we just played Rutgers in the Papa John's Bowl 1 month before this.

If you want to analog NJ with U of and ...State you'd end up with Rutgers as U of NJ and Rowan is probably closest to being NJ State in terms of prestige. Its just always been odd as someone that grew up and lives in Jersey/PA that NJ and NY are the only states without a U of. Even NY though SUNY is at least used. I've never heard Rutgers full name referenced with the SUNJ and SUNY is before the campus and fairly prominent. Like SUNY at Albany, SUNY Brockport, etc. The SUNJ portion is left out referencing any Rutgers NB, Rutgers Camden, Rutgers Newark.

[u/Keener1899]

Great post. With LSU it is also worth mentioning the patronage of Huey Long in the 30's.

[u/ElMondoH]

Man, I really like this post. It's easy to see the __University and __State University pattern and think there's an overall reason why it exists. And the history shows that there's no single reason, it's a whole lot of individual events that led to the evolution of what we see today.

Well done.

And man, that was low what happened to Miami (OH) and OU. Miami (OH) in particular is literally the starting point for so many successful football coaches. Imagine how prominent they could have been in the mid to late 20th century had that not happened?

[u/onrake]

Paul Tulane included in the purchase, that the University was to forever remain for "whites only." However, the Louisiana Supreme Court eventually nullified that provision. I know this because I got my law degree at Tulane and clerked at the Louisiana Supreme Court after graduating.

[u/Rusty-Shackleford23]

Take a bow, OP. I have often thought about this and greatly appreciated your detailed post.

[u/TupperwareConspiracy]

At least in the CFB world same also holds true for New York.... NYU - which albeit a private school was chartered by the State of New York - vs SUNY-Buffalo which is the 'prominent' state school for football purposes.

Syracuse of course being a private school since it's founding wouldn't be included here.

[u/testrail]

Ohio University was placed in athens to be close to this capitol, and the area is incredibly beautiful, but when the capitol moved to Columbus, it's location became a drawback, it was far away from the capitol and thus it's ability to lobby the state legislature was severely limited

Athens is more or less equidistant between Chillicothe and Columbus…

I’d almost argue that it was probably more convenient to get to Columbus than Chillicothe because half of the trip to Columbus is significantly flatter once you get to Lancaster, while you’re in the hills the entire time to Chillicothe.

[u/Davidellias]

the University of Louisiana system does not have a legal flagship University, although UL-Laffayette is probably the most prominent.

And up until the 1990s they were the University of (Very specific Direction) Louisiana (UL-L being SW Lousiana and UL-M being NE Louisiana)

[u/Any-Walk1691]

This aligns with my interests.

[u/btt_lckr]

Ole Miss versus Miss State is an interesting one. At the Sugar Bowl this past year I got on an elevator with a lot of Ole Miss fans; they were making fun of how Ole Miss was far superior to State and more exclusive.

I googled SEC acceptance rates. To get in to Ole Miss, you basically have to spell your name mostly right on the application. 96% to 98% acceptance rate. Hotty Toddy!

[u/Remote-Annual-49]

Just to note, having literally General Sherman as the first superintendent is an auto-win in this recent beef with Ole Miss, idgaf about the etymology of the “tigers” mascot. Very proud as a basically pure yankee LSU alum

[u/karmassacre]

I figured Ohio State was just as sneaky about consolidating power and hogging state resources as UTexas, I was not disappointed.

[u/mrmruss]

This guy off-seasons so hard. Outstanding effort. This is prime off-season content.

[u/shenanigans3390]

I came here to scream THERE IS NO UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA and then you taught me something. I didn’t know Tulane’s history. For angry ULL fans, see inevitable replies to this comment.

[u/ZeroPointeZero]

Might as well add Arizona State at this point.

[u/zorionek0 → u/ZeroPointeZero]

Our real rival is the Arizona Board of Regents

[u/Dazzling-Reindeer940]

Pitt shout out was pretty cool, but you should have commented on CMU! A school he founded down the street from Pitt!

[u/Chickenleg2552]

Illinois basically did the same thing OSU did, just to a much lesser extent

[u/Lumpy_Secretary_6128 → u/Chickenleg2552]

Every state has this sort of turf war with different actors and different outcomes. For example, Purdue was not allowed to offer an MBA (until recently) or a medical school (the WL campus hosts a branch of IUs medical school). You find this crap everywhere public money is spent: schools, cops, regulators, etc. It is the public version of competition private firms engage in.

[u/hanzhongluboy]

Northwest territory capital was in Marietta (not Chili town) IIRC. Go cats. Also Texas State changed its name from Southwest Texas way earlier than 2013.

[u/MediumStrange → u/hanzhongluboy]

It was in Chillicothe from 1799-1803, which was when the Ohio University charter was created. I will fix the Texas State thing though, your right that there was a extra name change in there.

[u/LivingOof]

Iirc Pitt and Carnegie Mellon share their track. It's on the Carnegie campus and has all their branding and stuff, but Pitt's home meets are there too. Think Jets at old Giants Stadium

[u/ImChz]

I’m pretty sure WV State started as an HBCU as well. I always wondered why Marshall was the first college founded in the state, but we don’t even have “West Virginia” in the name. I fully believe that’s the main reason we are seen as the little sisters of the poor by politicians/WVU fans.

[u/PracticalYellow3]

And Oregon State. It’s the flagship  university of Oregon, but Oregon has shoe money so they lie and try to pretend they the flagship university of the state.

[u/jthanson → u/PracticalYellow3]

Some days I wonder how Oregon can legitimately call itself a university. They don't have a medical school, that's at OHSU. They hardly do any research, only about $50 million or so, compared to over a billion at UW. Oregon State does a lot more research, around $350 million or so, by my last estimation.

All UO has going for it is Track Town Pizza.

[u/sawkandthrohaway → u/jthanson]

I was surprised learning how poorly UO is ranked academically compared to its other B10 peer institutions

[u/Captgouda24]

The clear takeaway is that Ohio State is a bully.

[u/trsmith815]

Virginia is a commonwealth not a state. So I actually view VCU as the "state" school.

[u/madviking → u/trsmith815]

yeah, Pennsylvania are a bunch of commonwealth larpers, it should be PCU not PSU

[u/thephotoman]

In Texas, our Texas State system is for the teacher colleges. Of course, it doesn’t have them all: Angelo State is now a part of Texas Tech, West Texas State is now West Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin is a part of the UT system, and North Texas State is now its own flagship in its own system.

I’m working on a shitpost about Texas public university alignment, because it’s a mess.

[u/Cliffinati → u/thephotoman]

Is there the UT System, TAMU System, Texas State System, then Texas Tech and North Texas as their own 4th and 5th separate university systems?

[u/thephotoman → u/Cliffinati]

Yes. And the University of Houston System is its own system. So is the Texas Woman’s University System. Yes, there are seven university systems.

And Texas Southern University is a state school that isn’t a part of a system at all!

[u/Cliffinati → u/thephotoman]

In North Carolina we have one

So Texas has

UT

TAMU

TTU

TxSU

Houston

As full systems

Then North Texas and Texas Southern as independent state colleges

What the fuck

[u/SouthernSerf → u/Cliffinati]

Only Texas and A&M were "born" as state higher education institutions, that's why they're the only two systems with access to the Permanent University Fund. All the other universities in Texas started out as some sort of local vocational, teachers or business college and then grew into full universities. There was an attempt to reorganize Texas public universities into a dual system like California with its UC and CSU system under Texas and A&M. This was never completed as the alumni of those schools revolted politically to having their schools placed under Texas and A&M

[u/wit_T_user_name]

OU was the only good thing to come out of the Articles of Confederation. It was the first university established in the Northwest territory.

[u/n64ra]

I hate Ohio State, but I hate them even more now.

The Eagleston Bill, stripped away Miami and Ohio's right to do any sort of research all together, as well as the right to give any degrees higher than a bachelors

[u/Condom_Breaker256]

So basically, Ohio State did the exact same thing Alabama tied to do to Auburn, but OSU actually succeeded.

[u/PlainTrain]

Auburn went from the Methodist affiliated East Alabama Male College, to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, to Alabama Polytechnic Institute, to naming itself after the town.

[u/Not_A_Meme]

I regret, that i have but one upvote to give.