Okay, first off I live in Illinois as I mentioned not once but twice. Wayne county to be specific. And again, I see more deer on a daily basis than a lot of folks will see in a lifetime of hunting. Heck I have 10 or 12 in my back yard nearly every morning. And I see you are one of those that thinks only big rack bucks count from your statement about Bama. Southern whitetail, with the exception of Texas, don't tend to grow monster racks or large bodies for that matter. Colder climates generate bigger deer. It's the law of nature. And Bama has close to 2 million deer in the state. I don't hunt for racks. Could really care less for 5 year+ bucks. The meat from them absolutely sucks compared to a nice fat doe. From a management point of view I typically will let a 3yo buck with an impressive rack walk because a healthy rack is a sign of good genetics but I'll smack a 3 year old with a spindly 6 point crown in a heartbeat. As far as Indiana goes, I was just through there a couple of weeks ago down in Terre Haute and on a quick walk through of a buddies property, approximately 270 acres, I saw around 20 deer. All looked fat and sassy and seemed not to have suffered too badly from the pretty harsh winter temps we had around here. I haven't hunted in Kansas in quite a few years but I have friends that live there in the Cimarron/Dodge area that seem to have no problems at all filling tags.
mrbb gave you a pretty much dead on piece of information, public land hunting is becoming a thing of the past. Deer are being attracted to places like mine and several others by food plots and generally well tended land. Food is better. Plain and simple fact.