Safety to me means admission is predictable, guaranteed merit/need aid that brings a school within the family budget and student would be happy to attend. Getting your costs to be competitive with your in-state option is tough.
Would you be interested in University of New Mexico?
https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html
You stated in your original post that you were interested in MSU because of their undergraduate research opportunities. Your in-state schools (as do most research universities) have undergraduate research opportunities. It’s up to the student to reach out and get those opportunities.
https://www.arizona.edu/undergraduate-research-opportunities
https://provost.asu.edu/uresearch
Even without the Eminence or Morrill program at tOSU you’d be likely to get the National Buckeye and Maximus. Together those are worth $16.5k. (And you should put in the effort to apply for Eminence and Morrill - somebody wins those, you might as well throw your hat in the ring, too.)
But, if you stay in-state for college that doesn’t mean you have to spend all four years there. Take advantage of summer undergraduate research opportunities at other schools or do study abroad for a semester.
MSU’s “SROP helps prepare undergraduates for graduate study through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors and enrichment activities.” https://grad.msu.edu/srop
https://global.arizona.edu/study-abroad
https://mystudyabroad.asu.edu/