Longer trip for the purple nation?

Something for K-State fans to think about as they consider their NCAA Tournament trip. It's been assumed for while the Wildcats would be headed to Oklahoma City to open postseason play.

And I believe that destination remains a solid possibility. But keep an eye on New Mexico.

The selection committee gives higher seeded teams location preference _ in order of team strength. And that preference is based on mileage to a site. The closest first-round site to Kansas State is Oklahoma City. It’s also the closest first-round site for New Mexico.

If the Lobos finish ahead of Kansas State in the selection committee pecking order, the Lobos could join Kansas as a favored seed in Oklahoma State and the Wildcats could be headed elsewhere.

Here’s a quick bracketology tip. List the eight first-round sites, then list teams in order of strength as the selection committee do. The teams are assigned sites until each of the eight destination has two teams.

Let’s use the AP poll as the team strength list. Kansas is first. Oklahoma City is closest to Lawrence, so the Jayhawks head south and OKC now has one spot available for a favored seed.

Next is Kentucky. Milwaukee is the closest site to Lexington, Ky., so put the Wildcats there and now Milwaukee has one spot available.

Syracuse to Buffalo, Duke to Jacksonville, Fla., and that completes the top seeded teams.

Now the No. 2 seeds, in order. In the AP poll the fifth-ranked team is Ohio State. Send the Buckeyes to Milwaukee, and now Milwaukee is complete and unavailable for any other favored seed.

See how this works? Purdue and West Virginia are next, and then New Mexico and Kansas State.

If the Wildcats have a good Big 12 and are deemed ahead of New Mexico, I see them as a No. 2 seed in Oklahoma City. But if they lose to Oklahoma State, they could be in New Orleans or San Jose.