Non-sports entities can't resist using the bracket format to cover topics relating to their own specialty. As they've done for the last few years, NASA worked the magic of the NCAA Tournament into their annual satellite photo contest, Tournament Earth Photo Competition. Unlike UConn's late-charging victory, the winner of this year's 32 "team" contest was a photo taken all the way back in June 2013. Titled "Trailing the Canaries," it captured the Canary Islands, a volcanic island chain off the northwest coast of Africa, Live Science reported.

Call the Canary Islands the Florida or Duke of this contest. One of their smaller mountains won the contest last year when a satellite caught the aftermath of an underwater explosion. This year's shot showed the islands in a sea of clouds and swirling ocean current.

If the Canary Islands represent repeat winners, volcanoes in general represent the fad of at least the last few years. Three of the four finalists, or Final Four, depicted volcanoes. The other two were Italy's Etna Volcano during its explosion in February of last year and the finalist, a snowy capture of Russia's Klyuchevskoy volcano.

The final between Klyuchevskoy and Canary wasn't nearly as close as it was last night. The Canaries won by a 96 percent vote (decided by an online vote).

Two photos from the top 10 had an environmental slant. One shot a thermo-map of the world as a way to raise awareness for global warming. The other tracked ship pollution by using cameras that coded higher levels of concentrations with darker colors.

Most relevant to the United States was a shot of Alaska, unique because of how clear the cloud-covered state was on the June day on which it was shot.