ladybugmom, that is the situation at our highschool as well. The kids who cannot get into UT or A&M (for those that are looking at large state schools) will generally look at either OU, LSU (which is around 4.5 hours from Houston), or Tech (which is so far, forget driving!! except that one time to get your car there
). All are considered great options as they are becoming more and more like in-state schools with all the Texans going there!!
There are also many who look at schools like Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Auburn, etc.
We are losing a ton of great kids to out of state schools due to the intractability of the top 10% rule, but as pandah stated above, there are pros and cons to the debate.