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An entire half of the U.S. map has been shut out of the Final Four for eight years

The NCAA Tournament committee tried this year, West Coast. The release of this year’s March Madness brackets had everyone bemoaning the overseeded Pac-12 Conference’s fortunes, especially the Big Ten Conference loyalists.

Alas, the trend continued: No school west of Oklahoma has made a Final Four since UCLA in 2008. That's eight years — 32 semifinalists! — of domination by the eastern half of the country, mostly the upper half. Tough to call that East Coast bias.

MORE: Best schools that have never made the Final Four

Seeing it on a map makes it even harder to believe:

To recap, those blue states are:

  • Six times: Kentucky.