US universities: who determines "what's in a name"?

For American universities, who really determines "what's in a name"....the institutions themselves or the market place? That market place is often linked to universities' atheltic programs. For better or worse, in an era when image is everything, names count. And what a university is known as means a great deal to the instittuion and how it projects itself to the public. Schools rarely choose to to be known by their "offical names" which are often an uncomfortable mouthful: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. And who ever hears the term "University of California, Los Angeles". Schools choose to be known by their "perferred names": Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, UCLA. But who determines if schools get to be known by their preferred names, the schools themselves or the marketplace? I suspect it is the market place. Louisiana State University gets to call itself LSU; other schools so named (___ State Univ) are not allowed to use the initials in the marketplace. Florida State may choose to call itself FSU, but to the media, it's listed as "Florida State". Kansas State prefers K-State, but the marketplace usuaully lists it as Kansas State. Perhaps LSU gets the pass because it is Louisiana's only flagship. The University of Mississippi calls itself Ole Miss and the marketplace complies, probably due to the degree the school itself chooses not to be called "Mississippi". Yet similiar names (Cal, Mizzou, Bama) are used by the market place, but not for listing purposes. UCLA is the only Univ. of __ @ __ school to only use initials. There never was a Cal-LA. A couple of others (UNLV, UAB, maybe UTEP) now have the same status. But less known schools do not: UIC may be UIC in Chicago, but the sports media calls it Illinois-Chicago. That goes along with Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UC Davis, Missouri-St. Louis. Meanwhile, I wonder how much influence Ohio State had in Ohio University being known as Ohio U. rather than just plain Ohio. So who determines what the school really is known as: institution or marketplace? How about your alma mater: what are the differences between its offical, preferred, and market place names?>