Binding ED.
This isn’t about Tulane in general, but all the schools at their “level.” They could accept all the high stats kids who apply and statistically correct for lower yield. They already have yield models. They don’t do this partly because it will introduce more uncertainty, but also because they don’t like to lower their yields overall.
I’ve been impressed by the cases of schools like Northwestern (admittedly more highly ranked) how increasing use of ED has eliminated a whole bunch of guesswork on the part of adcoms about demonstrated interest, and therefore eliminated a whole bunch of extra stress for applicants about whether they demonstrated sufficient interest or not. I used to think forcing kids to choose an ED in early fall was not good, but I think it is less problematic than the attempted divination of demonstrated interest (e.g. the original OP).