The question came to mind listening to sports talk while in San Antonio last week. They were talking college football and the media guest said there were only two "true" national programs: Notre Dame and Miami.
He said even though schools like Alabama and Ohio State and Texas and others have huge fan bases, those fans are concentrated primarily in one state or region.
He said with both Miami and Notre Dame, there is a high percentage of the fan base that has no geographic connection to the university or the football program. They were just College Football fans who liked The Canes or the Irish for whatever reasons.
The show's host actually agreed with the media guy on his point, which I thought was surprising for somebody from Texas.