@ksmom48 National Merit gets full ride at University of New Mexico and high stats can get you anywhere from in-state tuition to full tuition to full ride. Check out @DiotimaDM 's informative posts about UNM. Her NMF son will attend.
Arizona State U used to offer automatically either full tuition or full ride (can’t remember which) for National Merit. Now their awards system is a bit more opaque but I know OOS students with strong stats that attend at very little cost. Barrett Honors College is highly rated.
UT-Dallas - a classmate of my daughter’s got full tuition with ACT 33 and strong GPA and has found a lot of opportunity there. Also has an Honors Program.
Lots of direct relatively low cost flights in and out of Dallas and Phoenix from all over the country. Albuquerque non-stops are somewhat more limited.
Good luck!