I'm mostly in the camp that you can get incredible value from an undergraduate degree from ANYWHERE, so a low price is a big incentive to me.
But if the price of two or more options are all "acceptable", then going where you want, even if there are cheaper options, makes sense ot me.
I would have guessed that Utah, Purdue, Indiana, and BYU are all priced very differently depending on in-state vs. out-of-state. Is that not the case?
Also, he should just go to BYU.