deltablue

It may make more sense to think about your potential research along the lines of subject instead of region. Are you interested in antebellum political culture? The Civil War and Reconstruction? Slavery and Emancipation? Populism and the New South? Gender and Jim Crow?
Either way, the top programs for southern history are going to be Yale and UNC. Yale is the house C. Vann Woodward built and has Glenda Gilmore and David Blight. UNC is basically the epicenter of all things southern studies related and has top tier folks in every subfield.
The next tier is going to be the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina. UGA students do pretty well with regard to competing for the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize. 
UVA would be ok if you were more interested in the 20 century South. Since Ed Ayers left I wouldn't suggest choosing them for 19th century topics unless you are a Civil War person.
Honestly, I would suggest choosing the University of Mississippi before Kentucky or UT. Even if you have a burning desire to work on a topic related to one of those two states, the best move would be to go to a grad program with more resources and higher profile scholars and then conduct your archival research in one of those states.

I hear you. I haven't met a ton of people out in the profession who are UK grads but Edward Blum does really good work so that's a testament to the program.
If you're interested in the Civil War era, you may want to consider Northwestern, NYU, and UC Davis. Princeton could also be interesting. Matt Karp is doing really good work and is likely to get tenure. Also, there's probably not a better person on 19th century black life than Tera Hunter right now. 10 years ago I would have told you to seriously consider Maryland but all their folks who work on emancipation and the Civil War are on the verge of retirement.
Another program with a southern history focus that is on the rise is Rice. Their program has an explicit southern history focus, good funding, and connections to the Journal of Southern History.

I hear you. I haven't met a ton of people out in the profession who are UK grads but Edward Blum does really good work so that's a testament to the program.
If you're interested in the Civil War era, you may want to consider Northwestern, NYU, and UC Davis. Princeton could also be interesting. Matt Karp is doing really good work and is likely to get tenure. Also, there's probably not a better person on 19th century black life than Tera Hunter right now. 10 years ago I would have told you to seriously consider Maryland but all their folks who work on emancipation and the Civil War are on the verge of retirement.
Another program with a southern history focus that is on the rise is Rice. Their program has an explicit southern history focus, good funding, and connections to the Journal of Southern History.

@deltablue @Sumner224 Just an FYI...I emailed her a few years back and she said she was no longer accepting graduate students in anticipation of retirement

It may make more sense to think about your potential research along the lines of subject instead of region. Are you interested in antebellum political culture? The Civil War and Reconstruction? Slavery and Emancipation? Populism and the New South? Gender and Jim Crow?
Either way, the top programs for southern history are going to be Yale and UNC. Yale is the house C. Vann Woodward built and has Glenda Gilmore and David Blight. UNC is basically the epicenter of all things southern studies related and has top tier folks in every subfield.
The next tier is going to be the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina. UGA students do pretty well with regard to competing for the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize. 
UVA would be ok if you were more interested in the 20 century South. Since Ed Ayers left I wouldn't suggest choosing them for 19th century topics unless you are a Civil War person.
Honestly, I would suggest choosing the University of Mississippi before Kentucky or UT. Even if you have a burning desire to work on a topic related to one of those two states, the best move would be to go to a grad program with more resources and higher profile scholars and then conduct your archival research in one of those states.

It may make more sense to think about your potential research along the lines of subject instead of region. Are you interested in antebellum political culture? The Civil War and Reconstruction? Slavery and Emancipation? Populism and the New South? Gender and Jim Crow?
Either way, the top programs for southern history are going to be Yale and UNC. Yale is the house C. Vann Woodward built and has Glenda Gilmore and David Blight. UNC is basically the epicenter of all things southern studies related and has top tier folks in every subfield.
The next tier is going to be the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina. UGA students do pretty well with regard to competing for the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize. 
UVA would be ok if you were more interested in the 20 century South. Since Ed Ayers left I wouldn't suggest choosing them for 19th century topics unless you are a Civil War person.
Honestly, I would suggest choosing the University of Mississippi before Kentucky or UT. Even if you have a burning desire to work on a topic related to one of those two states, the best move would be to go to a grad program with more resources and higher profile scholars and then conduct your archival research in one of those states.