[Tom Line]

In 2008, they were quite strict about this. When they began to find small melted areas or areas that had hardened due to friction on the outer cover, the field officials went robot to robot to determine the most likely culprits and warned them that they would be DSQ'd if they continued to damage the ball.

Teams would do well to make one of their design priorities NOT damaging the ball. It's really not something you want to worrying about come game day.