@barrons I agree with you that a good SUNY is no less than Syracuse.
But I do not think their target markets have a lot of overlap. Before the free tuition policy, a top SUNY is like $6,500, and Syracuse is like $44,000. For those in-state students who choose Syracuse instead of a top SUNY, money is really not a decisive issue. With the free tuition policy, it is now like $0 vs. $44,000. So the price differential goes from $37,500 to $44,000. For those who would choose Syracuse for whatever reasons, a “possible” additional $6,500 is actually not that much relative to the initial differential of $37,500. Furthermore, I bet a big chunk of Syracuse in-state students would be probably not qualified for free tuition anyway; as a result, the free tuition policy should have little impacts on Syracuse’s admission management.