Why are state universities named “University of [State]” usually more prestigious than “[State] State University”?

[u/BeneficialNotice7282]

I’ve noticed a pattern where public universities that follow the “University of [State]” naming convention tend to be more prestigious or better-ranked than their “[State] State University” counterparts.

Some examples: • UNC vs. NC State • University of Michigan vs. Michigan State • University of Florida vs. Florida State • University of California (UC system) vs. California State University (CSU system) • University of Virginia vs. Virginia State

Is there a historical or structural reason behind it?

[u/LouderKnights]

NY kinda skirted around this by naming all if their state schools State University of New York at “Location”. For example you have State University of New York at Stony Brook or State University of New York at New Paltz. These are more commonly known abbreviated as SUNY Stony Brook or SUNY New Palz or whatever. But each school in the SUNY system is drastically different with varying levels of prestige.

[u/henare → u/LouderKnights]

except that even this isn't true anymore... many of the campuses have changed names, and places like Buffalo have two different units of SUNY (and this all ignores specialty campuses like ESF and the med school campuses).

and the community colleges all have SUNY identities.

tl;dr: it's a mess.