One of the biggest moments of the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament was McNeese’s brief but memorable Cinderella run. The Cowboys upset No. 5 Clemson as a 12-seed before a second-round exit, and McNeese student-manager Amir Khan had a viral moment as he walked through the tunnels with his boom box.

Khan will return to the 2026 tournament after transferring back to McNeese after a short stint with NC State. The Cowboys won the Southland Conference and will return to the tournament for the third consecutive year. High Point, a school located about an hour north of Charlotte, N.C., returns to the Big Dance for a second straight year.

This year’s tournament again features many schools whose names don’t reveal their location. Siena, a 16-seed, is one example. Troy and Furman are others.

The Athletic mapped out the 68-team field and the distance each team must travel for its first game. From top-seeded Florida to one-loss Miami (Ohio), which school will travel the farthest for its opening game? Which teams will stay close? Many programs will be forced to travel coast to coast, but two schools won’t even surpass 100 miles. Let’s take a look.

Men’s NCAA Tournament — South

No. 1 Florida | Gainesville, Fla.
No. 2 Houston | Houston
No. 3 Illinois | Champaign, Ill.
No. 4 Nebraska | Lincoln, Neb.
No. 5 Vanderbilt | Nashville, Tenn.
No. 6 North Carolina | Chapel Hill, N.C.
No. 7 Saint Mary’s | Moraga, Calif.
No. 8 Clemson | Clemson, S.C.
No. 9 Iowa | Iowa City, Iowa
No. 10 Texas A&M | College Station, Texas
No. 11 VCU | Richmond, Va.
No. 12 McNeese | Lake Charles, La.
No. 13 Troy | Troy, Ala.
No. 14 Penn | Philadelphia
No. 15 Idaho | Moscow, Idaho
No. 16 Lehigh | Bethlehem, Pa.
No. 16 Prairie View A&M | Prairie View, Texas

And the distances those teams have to travel for their first games:

The South region is loaded with a mix of teams that have had big seasons and are hoping to make a run in the tournament and teams that could experience some upsets. Saint Mary’s and Idaho will travel the greatest distances in the region for their first-round games, but Iowa’s 1,077 miles rounds out the top three, as the Hawkeyes must go to Tampa, Fla.

Prairie View A&M, which is making its third tournament appearance, will travel 943 miles for a First Four matchup in Dayton, Ohio. Troy University will travel 711 miles to the Midwest for a first-round matchup.

The Gators, meanwhile, were fortunate to earn their No. 1 seed and will travel just 118 miles, and North Carolina will travel 202 miles, the second-fewest in the region. VCU, Texas A&M and Nebraska will keep their first-round mileage under 400, but McNeese State, Clemson, Lehigh and Illinois will travel more than 400 miles.

Men’s NCAA Tournament — East

No. 1 Duke | Durham, N.C.
No. 2 Connecticut | Storrs, Conn.
No. 3 Michigan State | East Lansing, Mich.
No. 4 Kansas | Lawrence, Kansas
No. 5 St. John’s | Jamaica, N.Y.
No. 6 Louisville | Louisville, Kentucky
No. 7 UCLA | Los Angeles
No. 8 Ohio State | Columbus, Ohio
No. 9 TCU | Fort Worth, Texas
No. 10 UCF | Orlando, Fla.
No. 11 South Florida | Tampa, Fla.
No. 12 Northern Iowa | Cedar Falls, Iowa
No. 13 Cal Baptist | Riverside, Calif.
No. 14 North Dakota State | Fargo, N.D.
No. 15 Furman | Greenville, S.C.
No. 16 Siena | Loudonville, N.Y.

And the distances those teams must travel for their first games:

One of the early discussion points during Selection Sunday was No. 5 St. John’s lower ranking to No. 2 UConn after the Red Storm won a wire-to-wire Big East Tournament title over the Huskies. The Red Storm will travel the farthest in their East pod when they head to San Diego, but the Huskies won’t crack 200 miles. The UCLA Bruins, who will travel from the West Coast to Philadelphia, will travel the second farthest.

Northern Iowa, USF and Kansas round out the top five in distance traveled, all exceeding 1,000 miles.

The remainder of the pod has reasonable travel distances, but other notable programs with sizable distances are North Dakota State, TCU, UCF and Siena. Those schools’ opponents — Michigan State, Ohio State, UCLA and Duke — will travel a combined 3,252 miles, with UCLA totaling 2,399 miles. Duke will travel just 210 miles (and could probably bus to Greenville, S.C.), but there are no direct flights from Albany to Greenville. Cal Baptist is practically playing a home game, traveling fewer than 100 miles — a big-time advantage this time of year.

Men’s NCAA Tournament — Midwest

No. 1 Michigan | Ann Arbor, Mich.
No. 2 Iowa State | Ames, Iowa
No. 3 Virginia | Charlottesville, Va.
No. 4 Alabama | Tuscaloosa, Ala.
No. 5 Texas Tech | Lubbock, Texas
No. 6 Tennessee | Knoxville, Tenn.
No. 7 Kentucky | Lexington, Ky.
No. 8 Georgia | Athens, Ga.
No. 9 Saint Louis | St. Louis, Mo.
No. 10 Santa Clara | Santa Clara, Calif.
No. 11 Miami | Miami, Ohio
No. 11 SMU | University Park, Texas
No. 12 Akron | Akron, Ohio
No. 13 Hofstra | Hempstead, N.Y.
No. 14 Wright State | Fairborn, Ohio
No. 15 Tennessee State | Nashville, Tenn.
No. 16 UMBC | Catonsville, Md.
No. 16 Howard | Washington, D.C.

And the distances those teams have to travel for their first games:

Santa Clara wins the award for farthest trip in the Midwest pod, but it doesn’t begin comparing to St. John’s or even UCLA. The Broncos, who will travel to St. Louis, Mo., beat Texas Tech by 507 miles, and Hofstra checks in at just over 1,000 miles. Akron and SMU don’t hit the triple-digit mileage threshold but will combine to travel 1,756 miles for their opening games.

Michigan and Tennessee State tied near the bottom with 251 miles traveled, but to different regions. The Wolverines will travel to Buffalo, N.Y., and the Tigers will travel to St. Louis.

Miami (Ohio), the Mid-American school holding a 31-1 record, will play its First Four matchup in Dayton and will travel just 34 miles. Expect the RedHawks faithful to travel and turn Tuesday’s game into a home-game-like atmosphere inside UD Arena.

Men’s NCAA Tournament — West

No. 1 Arizona | Tucson, Ariz.
No. 2 Purdue | West Lafayette, Ind.
No. 3 Gonzaga | Spokane, Wash.
No. 4 Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark.
No. 5 Wisconsin | Madison, Wis.
No. 6 BYU | Provo, Utah
No. 7 Miami | Miami
No. 8 Villanova | Villanova, Pa.
No. 9 Utah State | Logan, Utah
No. 10 Missouri | Columbia, Mo.
No. 11 Texas | Austin, Texas
No. 11 North Carolina State | Raleigh, N.C.
No. 12 High Point | High Point, N.C.
No. 13 Hawaii | Honolulu
No. 14 Kennesaw State | Kennesaw, Ga.
No. 15 Queens (NC) | Charlotte, N.C.
No. 16 Long Island University | New York, N.Y.

And the distances those teams must travel for their first games:

The West region has the heaviest travel load for first-round games, and it’s not even close. Hawaii, Long Island University and NC State will travel a combined 7,293 miles. We can’t leave out Villanova, High Point or Kennesaw State, either. They’ll travel a combined 2,806 miles, and if you do the math … six teams will travel a total of 14,099 miles. Yikes. That’s plenty of time on the road for schools that are supposed to be bracing for travel disruptions due to a charter shortage.

Wisconsin, which will travel just 27 miles more than Arkansas, will play in Portland, Ore., alongside Kennesaw State, High Point, NC State and Hawaii. Miami (Fla.) will travel more than 1,000 miles to get to St. Louis, and Texas goes 1,006 miles to Dayton. The remaining seven teams have respectable travel distances — Utah State and BYU, for example.

Conversely, No. 10 Missouri will essentially play a home game when it travels only 117 miles, the second-least miles traveled for a first-round game, to face No. 7 Miami.