While it is generally regarded that travel and location make a big difference in the regular season for college basketball it can often be an overlooked factor in the neutral site NCAA tournament games. While many may have had gripes about the seeding in this year’s bracket there really were few overwhelming location advantages for the first round games. In most years there are some clear advantages, such as Duke or North Carolina playing in Raleigh or UCLA playing in Anaheim but these venues should mainly be neutral courts this season, although they certainly are not all created equally. Here is a look at some of the location advantages for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Providence, Rhode Island
Villanova is the top seeded team in this grouping and the Wildcats have a very manageable trip clocking in around 271 miles from Philadelphia. First round opponent Robert Morris must cross the state of Pennsylvania but all things considered this is not bad draw for the Colonials our of Pittsburgh. Should Villanova advance as expected the advantage would be more significant as St. Mary’s is making a long trip across the country and while Richmond is on the east coast, it is solid trek north of around 514 miles. Richmond will have a big advantage over St. Mary’s in terms of location with Moraga, California over 3,000 miles away from Providence. San Diego State obviously is making a long haul with the furthest distance traveled for any team in the tournament but it is not exactly an easy trip for Tennessee. Georgetown gets to stay out east but will not enjoy a major location advantage as they did a few years ago.

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New Orleans, Louisiana
At first glance Baylor looks to have drawn a very favorable location draw playing in New Orleans but its first round opponent is actually significantly closer as Sam Houston State is just 393 miles from New Orleans. Should the Bears advance to the sweet 16 a serious location edge could kick in playing in Houston but Waco is still 516 miles from the Big Easy, where a few of the key players for Baylor hail from. Texas is slightly closer to New Orleans than Wake Forest but it is not exactly a short trip either. Kentucky would face a slight location disadvantage against the Longhorns in a potential round 2 match-up, but it would not be as significant as it looks. Notre Dame and Old Dominion are both a long ways from home for a very neutral site for that opening match-up.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Kansas draws this region in Big XII country and it should be a manageable trip for the Jayhawk supporters. Kansas State also will open in this arena and those two rival schools should dominate the crowd. The first round foe for the Wildcats will actually be making a much shorter trip however as Denton, Texas is just 167 miles from Oklahoma City so North Texas will face one of the shorter first round trips in the field. Florida and BYU both travel significant distances to meet in the middle of the country but the timing may favor the east coast team with the morning start time. Northern Iowa will also enjoy a slight location edge in the first round match-up with UNLV but it still a significant journey.

San Jose, California
With the Pac-10 down this season there just were not a lot of quality teams out west to fit into this region so the result is long travel for many of the teams in this part of the bracket. Butler has to travel nearly twice as far as UTEP but it is still no real advantage for the Miners. Vanderbilt and Murray State are both making long trips and although Montana and New Mexico are western schools geographically, both still will surpass 1,000 miles to get to San Jose. The one big edge in this region may be for Washington. Seattle is still quite the trip to San Jose at 841 miles but it is almost a third of the distance that Marquette must travel. Marquette will play an evening game on the west coast which could make for a difficult set-up but the Golden Eagles survived a similar situation last year.

Buffalo, New York
While Syracuse was given the fourth #1 seed and is generally being regarded as the most vulnerable of the top seeds, the Orange draws the biggest location edge. Buffalo is only 150 miles from Syracuse and although the first round opponent Vermont will make a reasonable trip the second round opponent will be at a great disadvantage. Gonzaga certainly can make a fair complaint about being seeded poorly as a #8 seed but doing so right near the home den of the #1 seed makes the draw even more of a challenge. Florida State would also be heavily silenced in a very Orange heavy crowd. West Virginia also drew a nice venue in Buffalo, going just 287 miles to get here. First round foe Morgan State did not have travel much further coming from Baltimore but the potential second round foe, either Clemson or Missouri would be at a significant disadvantage. Should Syracuse advance in the tournament they will face the other end of the location situation, getting shipped out west to Salt Lake City. While that will mean daunting travel, few teams seeded highly in the bracket are western teams with the exception of #7 seed BYU, who would enjoy a nearly unfair advantage playing close to home should they get through the first two rounds.

Jacksonville, Florida
Duke is the top team in this grouping and this is a manageable trip for the Blue Devils as there are no teams in this region that will be really close to home. Wisconsin fans travel well generally but this will be a long trip for the Badgers and first round foe Wofford is coming from just 377 miles away in their attempt for an upset. Temple, Cornell, Louisville, and California all have long trips and there should be no real edge in those games as this arena should be Duke dominated in the crowds.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Ohio State fans should take over this arena, coming just 448 miles from Columbus. Xavier and Minnesota are playing about as true of a neutral site game as possible at least geographically as Minneapolis and Cincinnati are nearly the exact same distance from Milwaukee. It will be interesting to see if the Buckeyes crowd backs the home state Musketeers or if a Big Ten country arena is pulling for the Gophers. Pittsburgh has a reasonable trip to this venue but would face a location disadvantage in round two against either Minnesota or Xavier. Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech will be treated to a de facto road game most likely with this Midwest crowd.

Spokane, Washington
Houston and Maryland, and Purdue and Siena will face neutral crowds as all will face daunting travel. Utah State jumps out as an immediate location edge and it is true that the Aggies had to be pleased to draw this location. Logan is still over 650 miles away however as traversing the state of Idaho the long way is no small journey. That said, it is less than a third of the distance that Texas A&M fans must travel. New Mexico State draws Michigan State in a western venue but both schools are a significant distance from this arena. This is a venue where none of the top teams fit in and thus two #4 seeds were displaced here with long travel.