They don't need to waste time tracking. They are 99.9%

certain none of them are staying. Alabama does not have cities that attract many people to move there -- especially young, single ones.

They want the school as a whole to be higher ranked -- for whatever that is worth. Giving away free spots to 200-500 kids per year from out of state that have ACT scores in the 30's and GPAs in the 94% or above range doesn't really cost them anything significant. They give room and board away. The spot in a classroom is a sunk cost with or without them there.

Someone did the calculus and deemed getting the school into the US News top 50 rankings has enough ROI. They aren't there yet -- partly because the other schools in the region are doing the exact same thing and are winning most of the battles for these students.