TCU and SMU not cheap - and you seem to be good with your in-state public from a cost POV. SMU does have a full ride.
A 3.8 UW with 4.2 weighted - if using .5 for Honors and 1 for AP is excellent- but not off the charts - hence you won’t get max aid at Bama or Arizona. Miss State is better in that sense.
A 31 ACT is wonderful - in fact it’s 95% - but when you are talking about merit again - ehhh - it’s not in the top range. I’m sorry to say it like that because it’s really really good but…these schools, while not necessarily tippy top, all have tippy top students roaming the campus if that makes sense.
You can also look at secondary schools that have football but they’re not big conference - UCF (huge), USF, La Tech, Memphis, Houston, etc.
In the end, you want to go to a school (for merit) where you’re above the norm.
Mississippi State has an easy to fill out calculator and it’s a lovely school. You’d get $19K off. So it has a $43 COA including room & board - and you’d be $24K ish or so.