While I do not disagree that UALR could be better served if they were University of Little Rock as opposed to their current moniker. There are a few inaccuracies in statement of what UALR actually offers.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is not affiliated with UALR accept for being apart of the same University of Arkansas system. UAMS is a stand alone university. It is complete and seperate from UALR. And as far as the amount of money spent on research exceeding UA-Fayetteville - Yes UAMS does, however UALR does not. Also the state of Arkansas doesn't have a Veterinarian School. There is no portion in Little Rock and no portion in Fort Smith. The only Vet type program in the state is offered by Arkansas State University-Beebe (A community college in the ASU-Jonesboro system), and the program is for an Associates' degree in Vet Tech.

UALR does have their own Law School. The UALR Bowman school of Law.

Just wanted to make sure things were a little more accurate. UALR's total number of Doctorate's awarded doesn't far exceed those that are awarded by Arkansas State University, and University of Central Arkansas (which all 3 are very comparable universities) and thus the reason for the Academic Tier rankings.

And for the record - I agree that if UALR changed their name, added football, move it to the D1A (FBS) level and become a football playing member of the Sun Belt it would increase their national recognition levels.
Full discloser - I am an Arkansas State University alum and fan and I work in higher education in the state of Arkansas

I remember when I attended UW-Milwaukee during the Bruce Pearl era, there was a sizable movement on campus to rename the school to Wisconsin State, or Milwaukee State. It was pretty much for the same reason as the thread's topic suggests. U(State)-(City) schools are pretty low on the list of success. When you look at the University of California schools, they are typically very low profile... same with schools like UT-Chattanooga, UT-Marin, UT-Pan America, UT-San Antonia, UM-Kansas City, UA-Little Rock, and so on.... U(State)-(City) pretty much labels a program as second rate. Obviously, there are some exceptions, UCLA being one of them, but for the most part, U(State)-(City) schools need to change their names for more autonomy. UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay dropped the UW recently and just go by city names. It's a start though.

One has to wonder if a school such as Western Kentucky Univ. was really ready to pursue FBS status. Where a campus is located, the other major sports institutions in the region, along with demographics, plays into determined success along with factors such as funding, coaching, facilities, etc.

Schools such as Georgia Southern and Montana would not be suprising to have measured success if they did move up to FBS.

Montana, yes, they would absolutely be a good moveup. Georgia Southern had their time to move up, but they're now an also-ran in the SoCon, App State took their place as a candidate to move up and be successful.

I don't think WKU made a bad move in moving up, I just think they didn't have the right people to recruit there. UK and UofL didn't make a living in just going after local talent, they also had to go after the South, and possibly Texas and Cali. They need coaches who have some inroads with recruiting there, and they should be good to go in a year or two. The writing on the wall for their coach was in the loss to Central Arkansas. It was obvious at that point that he was an excellent I-AA coach, but not cut out for D-I, much like Kragthorpe was a good non-BCS coach, but obviously couldn't hack it here.