How the NCAA can save 22 flights and 18,000 miles this March Madness

Published on March 17, 2026 by Brian Schaefer

Every March, 68 college basketball teams earn their invitation to the NCAA basketball championship tournament known as March Madness. Their is always much debate about how the bracket is organized. Last year we asked What if the NCAA bracket were optimized to minimize travel distance and we introduced a simple mathematical optimization model to answer that question. However, there were many simplifications made that we have addressed for 2026.

This year, we ran the experiment again—but we expanded the model to include several real NCAA bracket rules and constraints, bringing the model much closer to the real-world decision making process. We now include the conference matchup rules listed below. We also considered that BYU cannot play games on Sundays as they honor the Sabbath day, which restricts what locations they can play in.

  • The first four teams from any conference placed on the top four seed lines must be assigned to different regions (unless five or more teams appear on those seed lines).
  • Teams from the same conference:
    • Cannot meet before the regional final if they played three or more times during the regular season and conference tournament.
    • Cannot meet before the regional semifinal if they played twice.
    • May meet as early as the second round if they played once or not at all.
  • These restrictions may be relaxed if a conference has nine or more teams in the tournament.
  • Any principle may be relaxed if two or more of the conference’s teams are among the last four at-large teams in the First Four.
  • Top-seeded teams (first four lines) will not be placed where they would face a significant home-crowd disadvantage.

We keep each team fixed to its original seed. In addition to first-round travel, the model now also accounts for potential travel to second weekend sites by incorporating a probability-weighted distance based on each team’s likelihood of advancing. This allows the model to optimize not just first-round locations, but also second weekend placements.

Adding these constraints makes the optimization problem significantly more complex—but also much closer to the real decision process used by the NCAA.

Travel Results for the 2026 Model

Even with these additional rules, the optimization model still finds substantial travel savings.

 

The savings include 18,000 miles eliminated, a 26% reduction in travel distance. In other words, the tournament schedule could remove roughly the equivalent of six coast-to-coast flights worth of travel across all participating teams. And these savings don’t only apply to teams, but also to all the fans that travel to support their teams.

The NCAA requires teams to travel by bus if their game site is within 400 miles, while longer trips require charter flights. In the baseline bracket, 20 teams travel by bus and in the optimized bracket 31 teams can travel by bus. That’s 22 fewer expensive charter flights required for the first round. Besides saving travel time and costs, this also reduces logistical complexity and environmental impact.

Baseline vs. optimized map of March Madness locations for 2026.

Our Optimized Bracket

Below is the optimized bracket generated by our model for this year’s tournament. Do you like your team’s matchup better? Is your favorite team now playing closer to home? You can compare this to the existing bracket.

EAST (WASHINGTON, DC)   WEST (SAN JOSE, CA)
=====================   =====================

PHILADELPHIA, PA        SAN DIEGO, CA
 1. Duke                 1. Arizona
16. LIU                 16. Lehigh / Prairie View
 8. Villanova            8. Ohio St
 9. Iowa                 9. Utah St

PHILADELPHIA, PA        OKLAHOMA CITY, OK
 5. St John's            5. Wisconsin
12. Akron               12. UNI
 4. Kansas               4. Arkansas
13. Hofstra             13. California Baptist

BUFFALO, NY             PORTLAND, OR
 6. North Carolina       6. BYU
11. VCU                 11. NC State / Texas
 3. Michigan St          3. Gonzaga
14. Penn                14. North Dakota St

BUFFALO, NY             OKLAHOMA CITY, OK
 7. Kentucky             7. Saint Mary's
10. Missouri            10. Texas A&M
 2. UConn                2. Purdue
15. Queens              15. Tennessee St


SOUTH (HOUSTON, TX)     MIDWEST (CHICAGO, IL)
=====================   =====================

TAMPA, FL               ST. LOUIS, MO
 1. Florida              1. Michigan
16. Howard / UMBC       16. Sienna
 8. Clemson              8. Georgia
 9. TCU                  9. Saint Louis

SAN DIEGO, CA           GREENVILLE, SC
 5. Texas Tech           5. Vanderbilt
12. McNeese             12. High Point
 4. Nebraska             4. Alabama
13. Hawaii              13. Troy

ST. LOUIS, MO           GREENVILLE, SC
 6. Tennessee            6. Louisville
11. SMU / Miami OH      11. South Florida
 3. Illinois             3. Virginia
14. Wright St           14. Kennesaw St

TAMPA, FL               PORTLAND, OR
 7. Miami FL             7. UCLA
10. UCF                 10. Santa Clara
 2. Houston              2. Iowa St
15. Furman              15. Idaho

What do you think—would this bracket make March Madness better?

Why This Matters

This experiment highlights a powerful idea, mathematical optimization can uncover large improvements even when many real-world constraints are involved. Even after adding conference rules, matchup restrictions, and scheduling constraints, the model still finds meaningful savings in travel distance. And this is hopefully a fun example of exactly how optimization is used in the real world.

These same techniques help companies:

  • Design supply chains
  • Schedule airline crews
  • Optimize delivery networks
  • Plan energy systems
  • Allocate resources efficiently

In business settings, improvements like this translate directly into lower costs, reduced emissions, and smarter decisions.

Final Thoughts

March Madness will always be about the excitement on the court. But behind the scenes, optimization can help make the tournament more efficient while preserving the drama fans love. And if mathematics can save 18,000 miles of travel in a basketball tournament, imagine what it could do for your business. If you’re interested in how optimization can improve decisions in your organization, we’d love to talk.