I think I can shed some light on the "The Ohio State University". Back in the 80's or so there was a controversy about the logos of Ohio State and Oklahoma State and I believe Ohio State changed their main logo to the block O. Since there are three different universities that are OSU, and Ohio State is the only one that matters, hence "THE" meaning the best. Kind of like saying FU to the Oklahoma State U and the Oregon State Beavers.