A year after Auburn got lucky as No. 9 drawn to Birmingham, head coach Bruce Pearl appeared frustrated about winning the SEC Tournament championship and being sent across the country to Spokane as a No. 4 seed.

Auburn was drawn in the East Region as a No. 4 seed against No. 13 seed Yale. Also in the pod are No. 5 seed San Diego State and No. 12 seed UAB.

“Well they’ve been talking about us being out in Spokane a lot for some reason,” Pearl said to local reporters at the team’s hotel after the Selection Show. “Maybe that’s because that’s where the 4s are. We were hoping that an SEC Tournament championship and wherever we are in the NET, maybe we’re 5 or so in the NET, would get us to the 3-line. But it obviously didn’t, so. Are we paying a price for being in Birmingham last year and getting an incredible opportunity against Houston, the one seed? Perhaps. It’s a long way to travel for our fans. We’ve been in this for a few times now. We got San Diego. We got Salt Lake City. Yes, we did get Birmingham but we also now got Spokane. So this is three times now that they’ve shipped us quite a ways away from our fans.”

Auburn has been successful when traveling across the country before. When Auburn went to the Final Four in 2019, it played in Salt Lake City in the first weekend.

No time has been announced for Auburn’s game Friday against Yale, but Auburn opened as an 11.5 favorite over Yale.

During Pearl’s press conference, Alabama was drawn into a different pod also playing in Spokane. So that means three different schools from Alabama will be traveling across the country.

“I mean, Alabama, UAB and Auburn in Spokane, Washington? Enough said,” Pearl said.

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]