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 far. Meanwhile, #3 Zion crushed #11 Mesa Verde 19-1 in the Southwest. The Utah park has beaten opponents by a combined 46-5 score in two rounds, but will face #7 Saguaro in the Sweet Sixteen, a park that’s amassed by far the most points (233) in the playoff’s opening matches. In a second upset, #6 Sequoia dispatched #3 Joshua Tree 15-8 in Pacific action. And #3 Glacier eliminated the last Alaska park, #11 Kenai Fjords, 14-5. On Tuesday, Mammoth Cave draws #10 Everglades in a matchup that ensures a double-digit seed will reach the Elite Eight. Sequoia will face #7 Hawaii Volcanoes and Glacier will battle #2 Grand Teton in the only 2 vs. 3 contest of the playoff.
Predictive brackets struggled again, though secured a majority of correct picks with a 55% overall rate of accuracy. Not one of the 19 brackets went 4/4 on Day 11, however. A slim majority of ten brackets picked Joshua Tree to reach the Sweet Sixteen. In the East, eight predictors advanced Statue of Liberty, while four picked the eliminated Congaree and two more the eliminated Gateway Arch. Fourteen predictors each nailed Zion and Glacier, with ones and twos scattered across all the alternatives in each of these regions.
Today is the last day of Round Two, with eight parks vying for the right to take on regional top seeds on Monday. Follow and vote on Twitter!