re: Why does University of Alabama have so many out of state students?

They are actually pretty low and send out pieces that basically indicate a prospective applicant would be able to get tuition/fee waivers assuming they are admitted. So the student who meets their qualifications applies. This includes a bunch of OOS students.

Then they deny them admission. Looks good for the rankings to have diverse-locale student body with a higher rejection ratio. Of course, those that are on the right side of the bell-curve get in and they see a lot of students (just like LSU and other SEC-W schools) from the 11-20% in Texas.