Why do so many US states have a state school called “University of X” AND one called “X State University”?

California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, that’s just off the top of my head but there’s certainly more.

It makes sense when one is private, like how Pennsylvania STATE University is actually a helpful distinguisher because there’s a private University of Pennsylvania. But when both of these schools are managed by the same state government, why doesn’t the state clear up the unnecessary naming ambiguity by renaming one or both? Often these aren’t even the only state schools in the state anyway so it feels kinda arbitrary that they have the names they do in the first place.

Posted Jun 11, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

1.8K417
Loading comments…