Agree.
There are many kids from northern states who come down to the large southern universities for college because they’re generous with merit, making them cheaper than northern in-state options (plus, the weather’s better). Similarly, many of the “southern” kids who are there hail from northern parents, who relocated to the south when the kids were young. It really is a hearty mixture of north & south in most large southern cities now (I encounter many more northern transplants in my city than bonafide southerners). As long as you target the larger universities in the metropolitan areas, I don’t think there’s much culture shock (other than toasty summers).