What if Ranking and Geography were all that mattered?

This interactive page will show you where teams would be placed if rank and *straight line distance were the only things that matter. The NCAA basketball tournament has eight 1st/2nd round sites, and each site has two "pods" which may feed into any regional site. The best teams are given sites based on what is geographically close. Once each site has been filled by two top teams no other top 16 team can be placed there. Also, top teams 1st and 2nd round matchups are placed into the same site pod.

The best team is matched up with the worst team, and the rest of the matchups are likewise matched up to have an equal overall rank. The ranks of the first round matchups each add up to exactly 65, and (assuming all the better seeded teams advance) the ranks of the second round matchups add up to 33.
For example, one pod would be: #1 vs #64 and #32 vs #33.
Another pod would be #16 vs #49 and #17 vs #48.
*Note that Creighton cannot play in Omaha because they are the official host school of the Omaha pods.

The distance in miles can only be seen on desktop.

Rank	Team	Site	Distance (Miles)
1	Virginia	Columbus, OH	275.98
2	Gonzaga	Salt Lake City, UT	549.11
3	Duke	Colombia, SC	182.44
4	Houston	Tulsa, OK	446.23
5	Tennessee	Colombia, SC	212.36
6	Kentucky	Columbus, OH	155.23
7	North Carolina	Jacksonville, FL	413.92
8	Michigan St	Des Moines, IA	474.36
9	Michigan	Des Moines, IA	509.98
10	Texas Tech	Tulsa, OK	378.58
11	Virginia Tech	Jacksonville, FL	482.23
12	Purdue	Hartford, CT	747.03
13	Wofford	Hartford, CT	687.55
14	LSU	Salt Lake City, UT	1362.54
15	Buffalo	San Jose, CA	2287.3
16	Florida St	San Jose, CA	2196.83
17	Wisconsin	San Jose, CA	1750.82
18	Auburn	San Jose, CA	2076.58
19	Mississippi St	Salt Lake City, UT	1365.96
20	Kansas	Hartford, CT	1202.12
21	Iowa State	Hartford, CT	1076.53
22	Louisville	Jacksonville, FL	596.61
23	Nevada	Tulsa, OK	1318.16
24	Kansas St	Des Moines, IA	227.81
25	Cincinnati	Des Moines, IA	508.98
26	Villanova	Jacksonville, FL	759.85
27	Maryland	Columbus, OH	631.11
28	Marquette	Colombia, SC	727.74
29	Utah St	Tulsa, OK	932.78
30	UCF	Colombia, SC	372.77
31	Seton Hall	Salt Lake City, UT	1961.48
32	Minnesota	Columbus, OH	625.33

Sources:

These calculations are Rhumb lines not great circle paths, nor driving distances.
- Basically it's a straight line on a regular mercator projection map. The curvature of the earth isn't accounted for so the distances listed are not the shortest possible distance between two points, but they are shorter than driving distances. A quick and interesting read about the differences can be found at https://gisgeography.com/rhumb-lines-loxodromes/
NCAA Net Rankings
NCAA guide for How the Field of 68 teams is picked for March Madness
Source Code for this Project