The Final Update: Bilas Invitational Tournament March 11 Update

Whew. That was rough, having to put together a tournament with the likes of Lamar and Western Kentucky. Now, let's get back to good old-fashioned Trillas-style elitism, without all the Communistic welfare cases dragging down the bottom end.

Back Iron Bracketology (NOW with Automatic Qualifiers!)

Why should Joey Brackets get to have all the fun?

Let me share the bracket that the Back Iron Index would turn out if we abandoned the Bilas and Lunardi Rules from the previous posts (disregard conference records and let in conference tournament winners as AQ's).

Click here to examine it yourself. And read the details after the jump.

Bilas Invitational Tournament: March 6 Bracket Watch

Championship Week giveth, and Championship Week taketh away. Before we get to the updated S-Curve and bracket, let's examine the week's big movers:

The Newly Eligible (*= moved into field):
West Virginia (9-9 in Big East)*
Mississippi State (8-8 in SEC)*
Ole Miss (8-8 in SEC)

On the Come-Up:
+8: NC State, Oregon
+7: VCU
+5: Creighton, Murray State, Nevada
+4: Drexel, Akron
+3: Marquette, Indiana, Gonzaga, Florida State, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Washington, Tennessee, LaSalle

A Few Words on Cuonzo Martin as SEC Coach of the Year

John Calipari has Kentucky No. 1 in the country, 28-1 with a perfect 16-0 record in the SEC. My response? Yawn.

Cuonzo Martin has Tennessee 18-13, 10-6 in the SEC, and seeded second in the conference tournament. All this from a team that lost two thirds of its scoring, along with its head coach in a swirl of scandal. The Vols were supposed to finish last or next to it in this season's SEC race. My response? That's your SEC Coach of the Year.

The Inaugural Bilas Invitational Tournament Bracket Watch

Jay Bilas is just that bad-ass that he doesn't have to follow anyone on Twitter. Even Chuck Norris envies that level of trillness.

Another sign of his badassery is that you have to pay to read just about anything he writes on ESPN.com. This piece would probably raise a few more hackles if the general riffraff could read it. For those of you who are either broke, cheap, or have little interest in feeding His Royal Baldness's impenetrable swag, he advocates that the NCAA Tournament would be a better place if there were no automatic bids involved. The inevitable backlash from the Witty Handle Troll Brigade is predictably crucifying Bilas for trying to close the NCAA Tournament to all but the top half-dozen conferences (in other words, turning it into football).

No mid-major will ever make the tournament again, let alone make a run like Butler's runner-up finishes or VCU last year or George Mason in 2006. So sayeth Momsbasement69WTF or HoopsPimpDukeSuckit or whatever their "names" are.

Bilas's philosophy would be that those teams would have made the Tournament comfortably during the years they had their greatest successes, and it's quite likely that others would have joined them.

I have a hard time resisting the siren call of spreadsheets and rankings, so I've taken it upon myself to assemble a 68-team bracket where no one is automatically eligible, and some may in fact be automatically INeligible.