It's time to implement tournament-eligibility criteria (Lunardi)

Lunardi only addresses one criterion, being at least .500 in conference competition to be eligible for an at-large seed. He presents data supporting the supposition that the high winning % non-major teams that currently don't get NCAAT at-large bids would do better than the Power 5/BigEast at-large teams that get in with an overall winning record but are under .500 in conference.

His idea is pretty simple.
1. To be eligible for the NCAAT, a program must have at least a .500 conference record to be considered for an at-large bid.
2. Post-season conference tournaments would count as a risk free conference *bonus* round. A team finishing the season under .500 in conference can add conference tournament wins - and ignore conference tournament losses - to try to meet the .500 criterion.

I like 1, don't care for 2. A team was either .500 or better in conference play or wasn't.

Of course, having both would give more importance to the conference post-season tournaments above and beyond having the winner earning the conference automatic bid. Maybe that would be enough to include 2.

Hypothetical example: a Big 12 team finishes the regular season 20-11 overall, but 8-10 in conference play.
20 win major conference teams are almost always a lock for the NCAAT.
They would not be eligible unless they either win the B12T outright for the automatic bid OR at least win their first two games.
In the latter case, where the team wins its first two B12T games then loses its third, for NCAAT consideration the team would be 10-10 (add the two bonus wins and ignore the loss) in B12 competition.

And for those of you who checked, yes, I extrapolated from WVU's current record. If WVU goes 2-4 the rest of the Big 12 season, it would be 20-11, 8-10, but not eligible under the Lunardi rule unless it won at least two B12T games.

And going 2-4 the rest of the way is a real possible scenario for them.
WVU has 3H and 3A games left.
The home games include OKS (tonight), OU and then their season finale against Baylor.
With OKS suddenly finding its game, all three games look to be knife fights for the Mountaineers.
They could easily lose 2 of those games.
The away games are at TCU, Texas and ISU. I can easily see WVU beating tu (currently 2-4 at home in B12 play and Jericho Sims questionable for his back), but losing in Ames and Fort Worth, where each home court defender is 4-2.

OU at 6-6 is in the same boat, but in addition needs at least 4 wins to get to 20 (also 20-11) for the year.
The Sooners also have 3H and 3A games left, and at home have to face Baylor (tonight - GO SOONERS!), Texas Tech (in OKC) and Texas, while on the road -- where they are, like WVU, just 1-5 in B12 play so far -- they face WVU, TCU and OKS.

Luckily for both squads NCAAT hopes, the Lunardi rule is just a proposition.