You’re Nuts: What is your spiciest unpopular opinion?

Since we are less than a week away from the Fourth of July, we are going to let freedom ring with this edition of “You’re Nuts”. Today we are exercising the freedom to dish out our spiciest unpopular opinion. On previous Tuesdays, we would pose a question that only dealt with a certain area. Things are going to be a little different today.

Today, we don’t care if it involves Ohio State, another Big Ten program, the conference as a whole, something pertaining to the city of Columbus, or the state of Ohio. We just want to know what you would burn on to get others riled up.

Today’s question: What is your spiciest unpopular opinion?

We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.

Brett’s answer: The Ohio State Spring Game is pointless

Every spring around mid-April, there’s a big to-do in Columbus about Ohio State’s Spring Game. I just don’t get the excitement about the whole thing. The only thing the spring game is good for is that it gets families that aren’t able to afford going to an Ohio State game during the season into Ohio Stadium.

These days it might run a family of four almost four figures by the time you factor in tickets, parking, concessions, and anything else that comes with attending a Buckeye football game. At least with the spring game you can get away with only dropping a few bucks for tickets.

Other than that, the spring game is even worse than preseason NFL games, which are as entertaining as watching paint dry. The last thing I want to see is a key player lost for the year because they were injured in an intra-squad scrimmage. Coaches do definitely take precautions when it comes to their star players and spring games, but they still feel some pressure in spring games to play their high-profile players since there are fans in attendance.

Maybe you get introduced to a new name because of a big performance in a spring game. When it comes to offenses and defenses, it’s not like you’re going to get a good idea about tactics and schemes, though. I know people wanted to see Jim Knowles’ defense in action in April, but you know Knowles and Ryan Day didn’t want anything important to be on tape for this year’s opponents to analyze.

For me, there’s plenty of other sports to pay attention to, as well as a lot of other activities taking place around Columbus, where the spring game shouldn’t be as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I know it’s great to support the team and the university, it’s just the spring game is a massively overrated event.

Meredith’s answer: Men’s basketball should be four quarters

The NBA plays four quarters. NCAA women’s basketball plays four quarters. The WNBA even switched to quarters after playing halves. Meanwhile, college men’s hoops games still feature just two halves.

Theoretically, playing halves mean fewer stoppages and a more competitive, closer game. Given that the college game time is shorter than the NBA’s overall (40 minutes compared to 48 minutes), perhaps the structure of playing quarters at the higher level is a nod to the need for more breaks in a longer game. Moreover, halves mean less disruption and a game with a smooth flow for both players and observers.

In practice, however, especially given the disparity between men’s collegiate ball and everyone else, the system of halves doesn’t make sense anymore. We already have defined media timeouts that halt play at roughly certain points in each half. There are also many team timeouts and as many stoppages for fouls, reviews and out of bounds plays as it takes to get through the half. The pace of play, in other words, has become anything but smooth.

Further. quarters lead to real opportunities for momentum swings when there is an actual break and reset compared to a team timeout, which adds to the excitement of an individual game.

Moreover, while the transition hasn’t exactly been a challenge for most, wouldn’t it make sense for players who are feeding into the NBA to play in the same format as their future landing spots?

I’m not about conformity for conformity’s sake, but the halves system just doesn’t make sense, and men’s hoops should stop being a special snowflake.