March Madness: Need a cheap flight to see your team? Here’s where to book tickets now

With two of Ohio’s teams in the NCAA tournament playing on opposite sides of the country, big fans may have no choice but to book a flight.

Wright State University’s men’s basketball team takes on the University of Tennessee at 12:40 p.m. Thursday in Dallas and Ohio State University plays South Dakota State at 4 p.m. in Boise the same day.

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Here are some of your best options for how to get to Dallas, Boise and Nashville, where the University of Cincinnati and Xavier both play on Friday.

Flying to Dallas to see WSU

The Dayton International Airport, John Glenn International Airport in Columbus and Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport all offer flights to Dallas yet this week, according to Google’s flight tracker.

The cheapest flights available are out of Cincinnati, with one way tickets on Wednesday going for as low as $122 on United Airlines. Some early morning flights from Cincinnati to Dallas on Thursday are a little more expensive, starting at $223 on United Airlines. Delta Airlines and Southwest Airlines also have flights available out of Cincinnati at a higher price.

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The cheapest one-way flight available from Columbus to Dallas on Wednesday is on Spirit Airlines and costs $251 while the cheapest early morning Thursday flight out of Columbus is $411 on Delta. The Dayton airport has one-way tickets available from $360 on Delta on Wednesday and early flights Thursday are going for the same price, according to Google's flight tracker.

Flying to Boise to see OSU

Prices to fly to Boise are a bit steeper than to Dallas.

One-way tickets out of Dayton and Cincinnati are the cheapest, going for $514 on American Airlines and United Airlines out of both cities. Delta also has flights available for $519 out of both Dayton and Cincinnati, according to Google's flight tracker.

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One-way tickets out of Columbus are the most expensive with flights starting at $572 on both American Airlines and United.

Prices for each airport remain the same for people looking to travel early Thursday and make it to Boise by the game’s 4 p.m. start time.

Traveling to Nashville to see UC and Xavier

The cheapest option to see UC and Xavier play on Friday in Nashville may be to drive. It takes just over five hours to drive from Dayton to Nashville, just over four hours from Cincinnati and close to six hours from Columbus.

But, fans willing to wake up early can get a cheap one-way flight out of Columbus on Thursday on American Airlines. Tickets from Columbus to Nashville are going for just $54 at 5:20 a.m. Thursday and for $55 at 6 a.m. that day, according to Google's flight tracker.

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