Is it harder to break into IB on the East and West Coasts due to stronger competition?

I was talking to a coworker about moving to SF for family reasons and he told me he wouldn't because the competition for jobs is more fierce and it would be a bad career move. He has a degree from a good school (Rice) but he argued that, while his school is top tier in Texas, California and NY would be more saturated with people from places like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc where our degrees (especially mine, went to non-target state school) would seem pedestrian. In Texas it doesn't seem like there are that many folks from outstanding schools like HYP/Stanford/etc, but I've never lived and worked anywhere else so I can't make a good comparison.

All all else equal (e.g. ignoring networking), would there be more competition and a tougher time getting into IB with a non-target degree in SF/NY than in a place like Houston or Dallas?