Bracketography: The Long Road for Every Team to Reach the Final Four

For one team in a swarm of an aspiring 68, winning the national championship is just six (or seven) games away. It feels so close, especially given the long and tumultuous path these teams have taken just to get to the NCAA Tournament, let alone win the whole thing.

We get so caught up watching the journey down the road to the Final Four (a copyrighted term upon which I may have just infringed) that we never stop to look just how far some teams have to travel to reach the ultimate goal of winning the national championship.

The road to any title is paved in the metaphysical—I'm suddenly flush with the image of a seven-foot Jack Kerouac with bright red hair, wearing a UCLA jersey—a path teams must take to learn who they are as a unit before making the final drive to a championship. But the road to a Final Four is more than a timeline of 68 unique seasons. Sometimes the road to a Final Four is actually a road.

For this conversation, our road is not about the adventure. Our road is literal.

If you left each team's arena and drove to and from each NCAA site, which team would have the least, and most, travel to win a national championship? How long is the road to the Final Four for each team?

Most teams will fly to their games. We're more interested in road miles (imagining a group of fans hopping in the car and going to each site). We took a small liberty with the numbers, assuming every team would travel to the host site and back to their base before embarking on the next trip. Every team goes back home between NCAA weekends. It made sense to assume someone going to every game for a team might have to head back home for a few days of work in between rounds.

SHORTEST AND LONGEST ROADS

Before we break down each region—and offer an array of maps—it's interesting to look at the teams with the shortest and longest travel in the first (second) round games. Duke and North Carolina are virtually playing home games, with UNC traveling just over 52 miles to get to Greensboro and Duke driving just under 55 miles.

Kentucky travels just over 74 miles for its first and second games, while the only other team in the entire tournament to travel less than 100 miles for the first weekend is tenth-seeded West Virginia, which will go just 73 miles away from home.

Who does West Virginia face in the first round? Gonzaga must travel 2,246 miles for the pleasure of being a higher seed in a hostile environment. The Zags don't have the longest road in the first weekend, however. There are seven teams in the bracket that must travel more than 2,000 miles, including Davidson (2,768 miles) and 2010 Final Four participant VCU (2,870 miles). So much for getting respect from the committee for last year's run.

The overall shortest trip to the Final Four would go to Kentucky, with a total trip of 1,658 miles to cut down the nets in Atlanta and New Orleans. There are just five schools that would travel less than 2,000 miles to reach the Final Four: Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Kansas, Belmont and Duke. Duke would have to travel just 1,730 miles to get to the Final Four, nearly 800 miles less than North Carolina, which earned a No. 1 seed.

Speaking of No. 1 seeds, Michigan State will have to travel 5,473 miles to get to the Final Four. In fact, the entire West Region has to travel farther than any other region, with no school slated for shorter than 4,000 total miles, thanks in large part to back-and-forth trips to Phoenix for the Regionals.

Davidson would need to travel 10,373 miles to reach the Final Four. Gonzaga has the longest overall travel at 12,509 miles. That's quite a long road.

(NOTE: Each host site for the first weekend is mapped out below the region distance charts below. Click on a school's name to open a map of its entire road, up to and including the Final Four.)

THE SOUTH REGION

Here is the list of teams in the South Region and their overall miles:

Seed	School	Total Miles	First Round
1	Kentucky	1,658 miles	74.3
16	W. Kentucky	1,752 miles	116
8	Iowa State	4,124 miles	610
9	UConn	5,291 miles	896
5	Wichita St	6,301 miles	1763
12	VCU	7,814 miles	2870
4	Indiana	6,256 miles	2234
13	New Mex St	7,220 miles	1586
6	UNLV	6,783 miles	571
11	Colorado	5,184 miles	475
3	Baylor	3,572 miles	712
14	S.Dakota State	5,897 miles	1096
7	Notre Dame	3,711 miles	687
10	Xavier	2,621 miles	439
2	Duke	1,730 miles	54.8
15	Lehigh	3,802 miles	484

It's interesting that Western Kentucky's overall travel, miraculous as it might be, is still under 1,800 miles and that includes a pit stop in Dayton for the play-in games.

It's amazing that a school like Duke gets games so close to home and a team like Indiana, which will surely travel fans well, has such a long road.

THE WEST REGION

I cannot be the only one who thinks this: Portland, Ore., is a great basketball town, but it is so far away from any of the schools going there that it's a total competitive disadvantage for teams that survive the first weekend. Not to mention, Gonzaga has to travel across the country to play, but teams like Davidson and VCU are getting sent to Portland? Way to save on travel costs, NCAA.

Seed	School	Total Miles	First Round
1	Michigan St	5,473 miles	252
16	LIU	7,211 miles	538
8	Memphis	4,431 miles	591
9	St. Louis	4,426 miles	418
5	New Mexico	4,737 miles	1367
12	L. Beach State	4,618 miles	990
4	Louisville	8,783 miles	2310
13	Davidson	10,373 miles	2768
6	Murray State	4,170 miles	230
11	Colorado St	5,530 miles	1170
3	Marquette	5,395 miles	386
14	BYU	9,465 miles	1606
7	Florida	7,229 miles	1318
10	Virginia	7,635 miles	1158
2	Mizzou	4,076 miles	315
15	Norfolk St	8,370 miles	1315

It's also odd that Murray State has the shortest first-round trip of any team in the region. Louisville didn't exactly get any favors for winning the Big East.

THE EAST REGION

Here is the list of teams in the East Region and their overall miles:

Seed	School	Total Miles	First Round
1	Syracuse	2,732 miles	361
16	UNC-Asheville	3,436 miles	475
8	Kansas St	6,032 miles	966
9	Southern Miss	4,907 miles	982
5	Vandy	5,188 miles	1220
12	Harvard	6,026 miles	2230
4	Wisconsin	5,977 miles	1276
13	Montana	9,678 miles	1126
6	Cincinnati	3,151 miles	276
11	Texas	6,143 miles	858
3	FSU	3,996 miles	488
14	St. Bonaventure	3,610 miles	708
7	Gonzaga	12,509 miles	2246
10	West Virginia	2,368 miles	73
2	Ohio St	2,872 miles	191
15	Loyola Md	2,443 miles	249

When you look at the travel for the first weekend, it's clear the top seeds aren't necessarily getting a break. As mentioned, West Virginia has the shortest travel as a No. 10 seed, but No. 6 seed Cincinnati has to travel just 276 miles against a potential No. 3 seed Florida State, which must go 488 miles.

There is no rhyme or reason to the East, especially in the first two rounds.

THE MIDWEST REGION

The NCAA seemed to send a ton of East Coast teams west, and every West Coast team really far east. Both San Diego State and St. Mary's have to travel more than 9,500 miles if they make it to the Final Four. Sure, some of that is travel to New Orleans, but neither team is getting a close trip on the first weekend.

Seed	School	Total Miles	First Round
1	UNC	2,568 miles	52.3
16	Vermont	5,480 miles	835
8	Creighton	4,197 miles	1147
9	Alabama	2,387 miles	536
5	Temple	4,599 miles	803
12	USF	4,047 miles	694
4	Michigan	3,121 miles	523
13	Ohio	2,788 miles	424
6	SDSU	9,927 miles	2219
11	NC State	3,468 miles	476
3	Georgetown	3,562 miles	403
14	Belmont	1,922 miles	383
7	St. Mary's	9,671 miles	1659
10	Purdue	2,541 miles	549
2	Kansas	1,866 miles	208
15	Detroit	3,625 miles	724

It's interesting that North Carolina actually must travel further than Kansas in the tournament, thanks in large part to playing in a Regional in Missouri. How, exactly, is North Carolina the top seed and Kansas the second seed?

OVERALL

It will be interesting to see which teams get to the Final Four, and if the distance they travel during the tournament has anything to do with the outcome. (By the time you are reading this, some of these teams have already been eliminated.)

I suspect the home-court advantage in each round will have some impact on the games, but I wouldn't pick a bracket solely based on who is closest to their respective locations.

The road has officially begun. How long it will be for the eventual national champion remains to be seen.

(All routes and maps created with Google Maps.)