I never realized to what degree the Cal St schools were forced to operate as commuter schools. So the state legislature won't let them have the dorms and infrastructures to provide traditional, on-campus experiences to California residents who either can't get into a UC or for personal reasons, like proximity to home would rather attend a Cal St.

In Ohio, Ohio State serves as our flagship and land grant. Miami has plenty of academic prestige and public ivy status but all of our other public schools with the exception of maybe Wright St are very much residential. There are a few smaller ones like Shawnee St who are primarily commuter based but they are NAIA and not NCAA D1.

You would think a state as large as California would have more public residential universities especially when unlike back east there isn't the vast number of private options we have in the Midwest and East Coast.