Ivy hopefuls should look beyond north east area to get into elite colleges. Your odds of getting in and getting aid or merit are a bit higher there and you can avoid winter blues, colleges are off during summer so no worries about southern summers.
Realizing, of course, that the Ivy League is an athletic league comprised of 8 colleges and universities that collectively nobody should consider the best 8 in the world/US/Northeast. And that “Southern Ivies,” “Little Ivies,” “Public Ivies,” “Black Ivies,” “Lesser Ivies,” etc are all made-up names that all college hopefuls should purge from their vocabulary. 
On a related topic, “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” should not be anyone’s primary source of information.
In the South, we should take some pride and calm them “kudzus”.
@skieurope "Realizing, of course, that the Ivy League is an athletic league comprised of 8 colleges and universities that collectively nobody should consider the best 8 in the world/US/Northeast. And that “Southern Ivies,” “Little Ivies,” “Public Ivies,” “Black Ivies,” “Lesser Ivies,” etc are all made-up names that all college hopefuls should purge from their vocabulary. "
Poison Ivies? :))
Whenever I read the “southern Ivies”, “little Ivies” … etc, I end up with an earworm of the old “Mairzy Doats” song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU2CKQQr90E My mother used to sing this to me.
Princeton, Penn.
@merc81 LOL
The link posted relates to a failed Magnolia Conference. There are elite universities in the south. I suppose Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Emory would be included. You could probably add Wake Forest and Davidson to this group as well.
^Add Tulane and UNC.
Kudzus league is better! Lol
If UNC is in, then UVA and Williams and Mary got to be in as well.
Ivy fever is stupid in itself as these schools are very different from each other, just happen to play sports together. However, this is the lingo masses understand and decide to head towards NE colleges.
^^^^I think the “masses” would readily understand phrases like “elite universities” “top colleges” etc.
And while I absolutely agree that the Ivy schools are different, I think we can also agree that they do share a number of common traits in terms of being outstanding academically, offering excellent financial aid, having strong alumni networks etc.
@merc81 That is perfect!
True, but so do several others. And with the possible exception of their FA policies, I see no reason why a student would apply to all/most Ivy League schools. The person attracted to Hanover would likely be uncomfortable in Morningside Height. The student attracted to Brown’s Open Curriculum would likely be stifled by Columbia’s structured core curriculum. And yet, every year we have multiple “Chance Me For All Ivys [sic]” threads. 
I am with @skieurope that the little Ivy, southern Ivy, etc. labels are ridiculous. Ivy League is eight schools. Whenever anyone says of my son’s college, “That’s a little Ivy, right?”, I say something like, “Well, there are only eight colleges in the Ivy League, and Williams is not one of them. But you’re right that it is a really great small liberal arts college. He is having a wonderful time there!”
A southern Ivy is… Princeton? The southernmost member of the conference?
But terminology aside, I think the OP is making a valid point is that there are some excellent colleges in the southern U.S.
(This reminds me of an episode from “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” when a character gets into Emory and keeps telling everyone, “It’s the Harvard of the South,” and people keep saying things like, “I thought that was Rice,” “I thought that was Duke,” “I thought that was Vanderbilt.” And then he meets someone who says he is from Harvard, and he asks, “Which Harvard- of the south, the midwest, the public Harvards?” And the person says, “No, it’s in Massachusetts.”)
I completely agree with @skieurope which is why the first thing I said was that the Ivy schools are different… if my post implied otherwise I apologize.
I did not infer otherwise. I’m simply agreeing that there are many great colleges, including in the South, that are very good alternatives to the 8 in the Ivy League, But I prefer to say that they are Vandy, Tulane, Rice, etc.and not try to force an artificial construct upon them. 
@skieurope What are you trying to do? Kill Miami University’s whole marketing plan?
From your lips…
“Ivy fever is stupid in itself as these schools are very different from each other”.
Fortunately “Ivy fever” rarely afflicts those who attend the 8 schools. Students don’t refer to themselves as Ivy leaguers but instead identify with their individual schools. With few exceptions their ability to articulate the specific “fit” or appeal of a school (along with all the other credentials) is ultimately what gained them admissions.
Similarly you don’t hear Duke, Michigan or Williams kids using the Ivy of the South, Public Ivy or Little Ivy monickers. They also recognize the unique qualities of their schools and just as importantly don’t feel compelled to self attribute elitism by association.
Tends in my experience to be parents who need to “explain” or “contextualize” their children’s schools and use terms to portray achievement and exclusivity. Thankfully it’s the kids that matter and they seem to appreciate their school’s specific qualities regardless of geography, athletic conference or size.
The use of any Ivy comparison is demeaning to those it is being applied to. A thread titled “Southern Ivies” suggests their is such a thing. The likes of Duke or Vanderbilt hardly need the comparison to be viewed as amazing and competitive school’s.
Nobody really cares about the term “public ivies” or “southern ivies”, but the original poster may have been interested in knowing what some of the elite southern mid-sized private universities are. I do agree that kids, once they get to campus to first time, don’t give a second thought to the schools they DON’T attend.