Going to an instate school could have advantages if you don’t want to be far from home, qualify for state grants, which would bring cost down.
If you pay full price for a SUNY, that could be about $20,000, but getting free tuition at Bama would leave a cost of less than that.
Some students might not be in top 10% of high school to be able to receive STEM scholarship at SUNY, but would have the stats to get free tuition at Bama.