I think Utah and BYU are pretty close academically, so why can BYU be more selective with its acceptance pool? The answer is because tuition is less than $5K for everyone (in-state and out of state) and Mormons can go somewhere where they can have a unique academic experience where they are surrounded by people like themselves. Utah is a state school that does well compared to other state schools across the country. It's hard to compare them to a private religious school in terms of enrollment percentages. You are better off comparing rankings of the programs themselves.