Kudzu League

The "Kudzu League" are a loosely defined group of prestigious universities in the southern United States. The term is a parody of the term "Ivy League" (used to designate a set of eight prestigious universities in New England and the mid-Atlantic states) and alludes to the proliferation of kudzu in the American South since its introduction from Japan in the late 1800s for erosion-control purposes.

Schools frequently labeled with the term include:

• Private institutions:

:*Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)

:*Rice University (Houston, Texas)

:*Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee)

:*Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia, area)

• Public institutions:

:*The University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia)

:*The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

:*The College of William and Mary in Virginia (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Although the prestigious Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University, located respectively in the District of Columbia and in Baltimore, Maryland, are as a matter of geography located in the American South, the cultures of their surrounding areas (trans-regional and Eastern industrial, respectively) tend to place these institutions outside the Kudzu League designation.