Have you actually been to Purdue? How about Penn State? The first is in a cornfield and the second is perhaps the dictionary definition of nowheresville. All I'm saying is that to single out rural versus urban locations in this context is not too meaningful. Given the right breaks you can build a major football most anywhere. We haven't gotten the breaks, and we do have a multitude of problems right now, but I'm a little sick and tired of all this condescending rural bashing that's going on.
I'm not exactly rural bashing per se, but for a rural setting college to have a large following, it seems to me that you need most or all of the following things going for you -a large alumni base-mostly within a 3-4 hour drive, high level competition, a winning tradition, (an "exciting" team ?), the state should not have two many D-1 schools for it's population (maybe 1 for every 1 1/2 - 2 million people or so (just a guess), good facilities, good financial support for the program from the alumni, easy access (Interstates and nearby commercial airport-Columbus is OK), good lodging options, etc. to name a few that come to mind. Most of these issues are problems for Ohio, although some areas are improving.
The athletic world is changing dramatically because of the large amounts of money now available to the "haves" of the major conferences. There is an ongoing debate on this site about how to become a football power. Time will tell if Ohio will ever become a football power, but in any case the rural setting is not a plus in my opinion, but is a negative that can be overcome by other factors.