The geography of 2024 NCAA tourney teams

[Part 1 of 3] Where the f**k is Longwood?

One of my obsessions with college sports is the geography of schools, regions and conferences. Conference realignment has completely upended the historical regional groupings (a topic I plan to explore in future posts), but the NCAA Tournament is another fascinating time to examine geography. Teams are grouped in regions, the games happen all across the country, and you get introduced to teams like the Longwood Lancers¹ and have no clue where they are.

Well, now you know. Below is a screenshot showing the geography of every 2024 tournament team, and you can explore an interactive version [might take a hot minute to load] here². This is the first part of a three-part NCAA geography series, so check out details of the other posts below

Map screenshot. See an interactive version here

Three-Part Series on March Madness Geography

Part 2: More data — including interactive maps — on the geography of every NCAA tournament team by year and round from 1985-2023.

Part 3: A long-form essay on the geography of college basketball, including interviews with players (Kendall Williams, Phil Pressey), coaches (Jim Calhoun) and announcers (Wes Durham).

1. Easily the most hilarious team name in sports. Longwood is in Farmville, VA btw.

2. If you’re a data nerd, check out marimo, a new Python notebook tool. This is what I used to create the interactive maps