I believe your reasoning is flawed. A better explanation is that KY football began getting better when UK and UL started playing each other. The UK-UL rivalry has generated more excitement in the state, which in turn created incentive for KY football players to raise the level of their game.
If you truly believe there is a correlation between the split in TN Public-Private and KY's recent success in beating them, then, yes spell it out for me, or better yet, do the math with a regression analysis and show me the numbers. Otherwise, I think you are pulling something out of your . . . hat.