Yep, sphericals seem to be almost requisite before the judges will consider your car "upper tier," which I think is a real shame. But it certainly doesn't guarantee a decent design score. One year we did rod ends and caught crap for it at design judging. The next year we spent lots of time making spherical holders that saved weight, etc - and the design judges didn't care one bit. Don't build your car for the design judges - you never know what they'll like or dislike any given year. Using sphericals simply because everyone has been trained for years to say rod ends are evil is not the right answer in my opinion.