You always had the "dandy diamond" long before Tobacco Road (It was Case leaving IU to coach at NC State that got Tobacco Road going).

Make a rough diamond
Lexington
Louisville
Indianapolis
Cincinnati

Now look at all the historically good NCAA teams (also down the divisions like the one in KY and Evansville in Indiana). UK vs IU was THE GAME until ESPN started in the late 70's and shifted to Uconn and UNC/Dook. UK was in the right place at the right time with that big station in Louisville and the one in Cincinnati and it snowballed from there and spread UK across the world and beyond (especially AFR).

quote:
Ohio State always is playing politics with state schools.

UC had one of the Top 5 engineering programs in the country as they coupled top educational talent with UC's Co - op program (why GE engine plant and WAFB are nearby). They expanded to a state school and are to like 45K students, promised more research $$$$. BuckNuts cut their legs off and all the Engineering talent migrated to Purdue. UC got stuck with the old U college and got whammed a 2nd time by BuckNuts. Being old enough to be aware of all this is why I never trust BuckNuts.

I used to know the top state sports folks in OH and they could tell you all kinds of horror stuff in Columbus that all got swept under the rug and silenced by the media of the day.