@Brew and obviously anyone else who has interest.
While I don't have personal experience with any these, I do have close friends whose kids have gone through these three "honors" programs at "lesser" big state u types of schools and had great experiences.
Bama Honors College: https://honors.ua.edu/
Ole Miss Honors College: https://www.honors.olemiss.edu/
My best friend's daughter is a "Haslam Leadership Scholar" at Tennessee right now ( full-ride, including living expenses and an expense-paid study abroad program) Smart girl, but honestly not the type of student that you would think would get this type of offer. My buddy honestly thought there may have been a mistake initially. They had plenty of money set aside to pay for school so once he verified her spot in this program he bought a new boat and remodeled the kitchen. ha ha
https://studentsuccess.utk.edu/honors/haslam-leadership-scholars/
https://news.utk.edu/2021/06/07/2021-haslam-scholars-cohort-announced/
Anyway, the point being that some of the "non-elite" OOS schools have some niche (kind of their version of Plan II for lack of a better analogy) programs within them that can make for great alternatives if the UVA, Michigan or Berkeley option doesn't work out.