Everything about your post is true about the quality of education in the old South. But I think you'll find that the University of Georgia is the nation's oldest state university and that Charleston College was founded in 1771.
The University of North Carolina was the first public university in the country to open its doors, and Old East is the oldest campus building, dating to1793.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_North_Carolina_at_Chapel_Hill