What's in a ball?
 

Apparently a lot in the NCAA

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/201...bout-the-ball/

Nice find. Surprised the NCAA isn't stricter on this. That said, I'm not sure it makes that big of a difference for players at this level.

fck yeah. dont u remember playing pick up games and everybody wanted to use their own rock? makes a big difference
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Not my crowd. After 10 minutes of warm-ups, everyone is good. Now I can see where giving the visiting team warm-up balls that are different than the game balls would be a bit of dirty gamesmanship. But personally, I can shoot with anything as long as I have a few minutes to warmup.

This reminds me of Dante Hall's accusation against the Donks. He claimed that the Donk's overinflated the balls used for kickoffs and punts at Mile High during a game. (So that Dante would not burn them on returns.) Supposedly, when he tried to track down one of the balls in order to show the officials, it disappeared and the Donks stopped doing it. Was Dante right or just paranoid? Can't imagine the Donks cheating in order to win, can you? ;)

Great article. Makes a lot of sense. I'd love to the see the B12 breakdown. I'm sure KU uses the weird Adidas ball as they're a huge Adidas school - could be a pretty big advantage seeing as how it's one of the weirder balls the writer lists.

:shrug:

Doesn't look like KU uses Adidas

Out of the last ten N.C.A.A. champions, six have been Nike users, three have been Wilson, and one has been The Rock

Pretty interesting. I'm going to guess that major programs have a cachet of different balls they use in preparation to play at different venues. If not, they will.

I think this article makes it out to be a LOT bigger of a deal than it actually is.

I don't think it's a BIG deal, but it does have some effect I'm sure. If you play with the Nike ball at home, and are trying to hit a game winning FT or 3, and the ball is 2 ounces heavier or lighter, it can throw you off just enough.

I knew there were different balls out there, but I naively assumed they all had to be the same size and weight. Or at least closer than 1/2" and 2 oounces.

Uh...yeah...I'm sure it had nothing to do with illegal blocks being called on Special Teams once the refs actually started paying attention.

Answer: Juicy man-juice with pulp.