Because there was no unity throughout the state, and the same dysfunction exists today. There was a select group of rich people who took what they wanted and left the rest of us to deal with the outfall. The IHL came along later but there's still a fair amount of homerific dysfunction there, or at least there has been until recently.
And it's not all racial. It's MSU vs. Ole Miss BS, then Southern whining, and then add in the racial part of the HBCUs and here we are.
One of two things need to happen to end it. Some real unity with hard decisions being made, or the state simply just needs to grow on its own. Chicken or the egg though, because growth usually happens through the universities. Ask South Carolina (the state) or Alabama.