The national championship game Monday night between Alabama and Ohio State seems to have almost all the right pieces in place for a college football masterpiece – two undefeated teams in a matchup of bluebloods from the biggest hotbeds in the sport: the Midwest and the South.
The game will feature a Heisman Trophy winner, a star young coach for Ohio State and arguably the best coach of all time on the sideline for Alabama.
But something’s still missing in the bigger picture — roughly half the country west of Kansas.