The Adidas Dime is… not the problem

Inspired by u/Scratchbuttdontsniff ‘s post from earlier this week (that is now deleted by the mods) I grabbed the data on fumbles from 2016-2023 (again shoutout to u/BlueScar & collegefootballdata.com) and compared them with ball type. While we do have a fumbling problem, the ball type sadly is not to blame. Adidas balls are above Nike and the Foreign made footballs, however, the difference is not statistically significant. Teams that use their own ball labeled ‘Team Issue’ according to [https://biggameusa.com/who-throws-what.html](https://biggameusa.com/who-throws-what.html) do have a fumbling problem but that’s a problem for Utah, Auburn, Navy etc. and not us. Thus, the issue may lay somewhere else such as how the team is prepping/conditioning the footballs and that staff/process may be something that carries over from coach to coach so hasn’t changed between Mike Riley, Scott Frost, Mickey Joseph or Matt Rhule.

The other argument I could see would be climate and or weather, and while I could assess the weather for each game I think it’s acceptable to generalize a bit here. Iowa State which is number 1 in the least amount of fumbles should have a climate similar enough to Lincoln’s (222 miles according to Google Maps) that we shouldn’t be such polar opposites. That being said when I analyzed the fumbles per Conference there may be something more at play. You can see that the BigXii has significantly less fumbles per game by team, than any other conference and is well below the league average of 1.067 fumbles per game. While we play into the East, Iowa State plays South so even though our home games based on climate may cancel out, the away games could be more impactful.

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Edit: I forgot to add that Miami (OH) probably has a similar enough climate and uses the Adidas Dime that our prep and conditioning team needs to reach out. Otherwise, Wyoming is up there as well with a climate not too dissimilar from our own.

Edit2: Last edit I promise. I realized Fumbles Per Rushing Attempt is probably a better metric. We still suck, don’t worry. Overall results don’t change per ball type.

https://preview.redd.it/enxeawrjv6yb1.png?width=1376&format=png&auto=webp&s=aea2b7cea941e3967d784b5dcd72ac3b63902101

Edit3: I lied, Dixiehusker asked me to add Int data for the hell of it.

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