Bracketography: The Road to the NCAA Tournament Regionals (In Actual Miles)

The NCAA tournament is down to just 16 teams, who will travel a total of 15,149 miles to their next respective stops on the road to New Orleans for the Final Four.

Before we look at how far each team in the Sweet Sixteen must travel to reach the NCAA Regionals, it is interesting to look back at some of the results from the first weekend.

This version of Bracketography wasn't created as a hypothesis, per se. There was some expectation that the NCAA placed teams with better seeds in more favorable locations when it came to travel for fans, therefore assuming the teams with shorter travel should be favored to win their games over the first weekend.

That expectation was true for the most part, no thanks to Duke—traveling just over 50 miles to lose to Lehigh—and West Virginia—traveling under 75 miles to lose to a Gonzaga team that traveled 2,246 miles to its sub-regional destination.

The few outliers aside, teams with shorter travel in the Round of 64 won 22 of the 32 contests.

Teams that traveled less than 300 miles were 7-4 in the first full round (not including games played in Dayton) while teams that traveled more than 1,000 miles were 10-11. Those numbers certainly don't show great statistical significance in favor of the closer teams, a theory further debunked by the fact that teams traveling over 2,000 miles were 4-3 in the Round of 64.

Of the seven teams that traveled more than 2,000 miles, five faced teams that traveled at least 1,200 miles as well, including Louisville and Davidson each traveling more than 2,300 miles to play each other in the first game. 

In the Round of 32 games, 10 of the 16 winners had shorter travel than their opponents. With four or more days to acclimate to the area, the second-round matchups shouldn't really have any correlation on distance traveled, save the fans who didn't come to the first game but made the trip for the second.

Having said that, teams located within 300 driving miles of their sites were 6-1 in the Round of 32. Teams within 500 miles, including those just calculated, were 11-6 in the second round (though several teams in this category played each other). 

Teams that traveled more than 1,000 miles were 4-6 in the Round of 32, though two of the remaining four teams that traveled more than 2,000 miles advanced to the Sweet Sixteen: Indiana (2,234 miles) defeated VCU (2,870 miles) and Louisville (2,310) defeated New Mexico (1,367). 

What does it all mean? Well, not a whole lot to be totally honest. It will be interesting to see if travel does get to some of the schools in the Sweet Sixteen. For instance, top-seeded Kentucky will have traveled a total of 456 miles to reach its first two host cities while cross-state rival Louisville will have traveled 4,036 miles. Which team do you think will be more rested if both make it to New Orleans?

For a closer look at each team, let's see how they stack up to their Regional participants

SOUTH REGION

Kentucky will travel just 382 miles to Atlanta for the South Regional. Xavier, the No. 10 seed, is next at 465 miles. Indiana has the third longest travel with just about 500 miles to Atlanta while Baylor actually has the furthest road at 817 miles.

No team in the South has to travel more than 817 miles to the Regional after six of the 16 schools were forced to travel more to their sub-regional sites, 10 of which had to travel more than 500 miles. (Click here to see the South Regional online interactive map.)

WEST REGION

The West Regional, frankly, is ridiculous. No teams west of the Mississippi made it out of the West Region, meaning the shortest travel for any team to the West Regional in Phoenix is 1,726 miles for Louisville. Compared to his first two contests, it's as if Rick Pitino is getting a home game!

The other teams have to travel about the same distance to the Regional. Marquette has 1,780 road miles to cover. Top -eeded Michigan State has 1,946 road miles while Florida has the longest trip of any team in the Sweet Sixteen at 2,028 miles. (Click here to see the West Regional online interactive map.) 

EAST REGION

Kentucky may have the top overall seed, but Syracuse has the shorter distance to travel for its Regional. The East Regional in Boston is just 315 miles for Syracuse. Compared to the other participants in the Regional, it could be a huge advantage.

Ohio State must travel 775 miles to get to Boston. Cincinnati fans can pick up their Buckeye counterparts on the way if they like, needing to go 881 road miles right through Columbus. Wisconsin has another 1,000-plus mile trek this week, traversing 1,129 miles around the Great Lakes, up through New York and over to Boston. Yes, most of the teams in the tournament will fly. We established that last week. (Click here to see the East Regional online interactive map.) 

MIDWEST REGION

I don't mean to give Roy Williams any pre-game fodder, but are we sure North Carolina is the one seed and Kansas is the two seed? In the NCAA overall seedings, Kansas was fifth, the highest two seed in the tournament, while North Carolina was third behind Kentucky and Syracuse. It stands to reason that Kansas should have been placed with Michigan State, but they were put in the same region as North Carolina. That's not all. Kansas has to travel a mere 290 miles to the Midwest Regional in St. Louis while North Carolina has to travel 801 miles. 

The disparity in distance is a joke. Does anyone really think Kansas won't have a huge home court advantage over a one seed if both teams advance? Let's not forget Michigan State has to travel nearly 2,000 miles from home to play as a one seed while Kansas gets a quick 290-mile stroll as a two seed? Something doesn't seem right.

Ohio has to travel 492 miles to the Regional while NC State can carpool with the Tarheels, going just about the same distance, though Google Maps says NC State has an 822-mile trip. (Click here to see the Midwest Regional online interactive map.) 

CONCLUSION

If you're searching for the road less traveled to reach the Final Four, look at Kentucky, Syracuse and Kansas to make it through pretty easily. In the West, it's close, but it's actually Marquette over Michigan State for the shortest trip through the first two weeks, neither of which will be very short. 

It would be a pretty good Final Four—Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas, Marquette. None of those teams should have their bags packed for New Orleans just yet.

(Graphics made with maps via Google Maps.)