Oregon v Oregon State U of California v California State U of Washington v Washington State U of Pennsylvania v Penn State are the Universities more prestigious and harder to get into versus the State schools overall? Seems that way. Seems like they get more cash, usually better sports teams, etc. why?.
I wouldn't say that U of O is harder to get into than OSU. When I graduated from high school you auto got into either school if your GPA was above a 3.25. You also auto got into either school if you scored a certain amount on the SAT's and it was the same amount for either school. U of O offered me more money in scholarships than OSU did, but I went to OSU anyway
Aren't those "State" institutions largely "land grant" schools, focused more on agriculture and engineering whereas the "University of" schools were founded on more traditional liberal arts grounds? Of course, they've morphed over time, but there used to be a greater separation.
Ohio State is miles ahead of Ohio U in terms of academic prestige. I struggle to think of a similar outlier, although UPenn is a private school, while Penn State is a public school.
One could argue Arizona State is superior to the University of Arizona...the Sun Devils held Oregon to only 43 points.
Maxiep's right -- usually the "state" schools are the land grant universities. Nothing more to it than that. Edit: interesting, wikipedia has a list of land grant universities and it's all over the board. Arizona (not ASU) is land grant and there are a few private schools as well. wikipedia list of land grant univ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_land-grant_universities wikipedia description of land grant univ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land-grant_university