The geography of every NCAA tournament

[Part 2 of 3] By year (1985-2023) and round

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 Lancers and have no clue where they are.

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

Three-Part Series on March Madness Geography

Part 1: The geography and interactive maps of the 2024 tournament.

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).