After a truly contentious Elite Eight match with #1 Grand Canyon and a more clear but still watchable triumph over #1 Yosemite, many thought the National Park Playoff Championship Final might provide some challenges for the Southwest champion, #7 Saguaro. Instead, Arizona’s southernmost park obliterated Maine’s crown jewel with a 193-20 stomping. #4 Acadia, the […]
A park near the border will win the National Park Playoff. The only question left is which border and with which country. #7 Saguaro, less than a hundred miles north of Mexico, upended the last remaining #1 seed in the tournament, Yosemite, by a 139-54 count. Across the country and the bracket, #4 Acadia, just […]
Don’t mess with Tucson. That’s the message coming through loud and clear in the National Park Playoff after #7 Saguaro stunned cross-state rival #1 Grand Canyon to win the Southwest bracket and advance to the Final Four. The Canyon stayed in contention most of the day, but rarely led and saw its chances and margin […]
After a calm start to the Sweet Sixteen, upsets roared back in the second half, led by the highest scoring park in the tournament, #7 Saguaro. The cactus-based preserve upended #3 Zion in the Southwest by a 195-51 score, marking the highest marks for both a winning and losing park so far this tournament. Saguaro […]
The first #1 seed has been eliminated from competition in the National Park Playoff, while the other three will comprise a plurality of the Elite Eight. In the East, #4 Acadia knocked off #1 Great Smoky Mountains, 16-11, to reach the last round before the Final Four. After surviving a huge scare last round, #1 […]
On another fairly quiet day in the National Park Playoff, the biggest question was which southern Utah park join Zion in the Sweet Sixteen: #4 Bryce Canyon or #5 Arches? After a seesaw battle that was usually tied, the answer was Arches, by an 11-9 margin. That was as close as anything got on Saturday, […]
All of the monuments are gone. The National Park Playoff’s Sweet Sixteen will entirely comprise official National Parks. This fact was cemented in the East by #11 Mammoth Cave, arguably the unlikeliest park yet to reach the Sweet Sixteen, which dismissed #3 Statue of Liberty 14-6 in the lowest scoring day of the tournament so […]
In the wildest day of action so far in the National Park Playoff, two matchups came down to the wire, with one tie broken in the final minutes. #10 Everglades and #15 Virgin Islands each went on runs against the other in a pairing frequently featuring ties and lead changes. In the final two hours, […]
For most of the day, it looked like #1 Yellowstone wasn’t going to make it to the Sweet Sixteen of the National Park Playoff. The top seed in the North (picked by 13/19 predictive brackets to reach the Final Four, 12/19 to reach the Championship Final, and 4/19 to win it all) needed a late […]
Thirty-two matches are in the books and eleven of them resulted in upsets as the first round of the National Park Playoff is complete! Only three parks expected to be in the Sweet Sixteen have been bounced: East #2 Lincoln Memorial, Pacific #4 Death Valley, and North #4 Mount Rushmore. Monuments have had a rough […]