Former Vikings quarterback Brooks Bollinger is playing for Florida in the United Football League.

Expect Adam Weber to be the starting quarterback against Michigan State but MarQueis Gray will play frequently in the game.

Rumors about where Cretin-Derham Hall offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson will attend college continue to include Southern California, Notre Dame and Minnesota.

Last week’s issue of Sporting News magazine named a mid-season All-America team and not a single Big Ten Conference player made the offensive or defensive units.

Will Chad Hartman, now working Monday afternoons, be full time with WCCO Radio by next year?

Lights at Target Field are being tested until Friday of this week, according to https://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091021&content_id=7515904&vkey=news_min&fext=.jsp&c_id=min.

Major League Baseball International has agreements with 50 television and radio partners to broadcast the World Series in 15 languages to 233 countries and territories around the world.  The World Series opens on Wednesday in New York with the Yankees hosting Philadelphia.

Lynx star Seimone Augustus, who tore the ACL in her left knee just six games into the season last June, is rehabbing in Minneapolis.  She hopes to return to the court in late January or early February.  Augustus recently cut her dreads off, saying she “wanted to start fresh.”

Former Edina resident Brian Burke, now general manager in Toronto, has seen the Maple Leafs have a winless start to the 2009-10 season after a last place Northeast Division finish in 2008-09.  An NHL source said: “Brian will get it done, but it takes time, effort and patience.”

Former Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, who has New Jersey winning and in third place in the Atlantic with 12 points, is admired by that same source. “Fans need to understand that Jacques Lemaire is all about hockey and will talk hockey with anyone who would ask a question and wants to learn.  Lemaire, away from the game, loves investing and tinkering in the stock market, fine wine, cigars and golf.  He spends his summers in Sarasota, Florida on his boat fishing and relaxing.  He also has a fine sense of humor.”

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Think the Big Ten isn’t having a difficult time in football?  The BCS standings have Boise State and Cincinnati, Western Athletic Conference and Big East Conference schools, ranked ahead of Iowa, the top rated Big Ten team.

The first six schools in the standings are: Florida, Alabama, Texas, Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa.  A WAC school ahead of everybody from the Big Ten?  Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler must be fuming in their graves.

Opinion by some who follow college football is that the following conferences are better than the Big Ten: Southeastern, Pac-10, Big 12 and Big East.  The SEC is in a class by itself with Florida and Alabama both in the league’s East Division.  LSU at No. 9 and South Carolina at No. 23 give the 12 member league four teams in the BCS top 25 rankings.

The Big Ten has four teams also, with No. 13 Penn State, No. 19 Ohio State and No. 21 Wisconsin joining Iowa in the rankings.  But based on this season and past performance the Big Ten isn’t impressive.  Watching conference teams leads an observer to see fewer extraordinary players and sometimes less team speed on defense than the elite teams in other parts of the country.

Ohio State, the conference’s poster program for success, couldn’t win signature games against Southern California this season and last.  The Buckeyes were one of six Big Ten schools to lose bowl games after last season.  Iowa was the only winner.  And in the last three years the Big Ten has lost all six of its BCS bowl games.

Forty or more years ago it was a good argument as to whether the Big Ten or SEC played the better football.  In that era Big Ten teams played black athletes when many other schools didn’t.  In the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s the Big Ten was more active than any other conference in its recruiting and playing of African-Americans.  Other conferences were segregated or much more restrictive about opportunities. That edge is long gone.

The Big Ten has been in decline since the 1970s when for the first time it started losing Rose Bowl games with surprising frequency, coming up short in nine of 10 games.  More recently Ohio State, for example, has lost three of its last four bowl games, including two games for the national championship.

This season the Big Ten may deserve better than to be ranked behind four other conferences.  It’s questionable that the Big East is superior, that’s for sure.  And those who are anti-Big Ten shouldn’t go too far in their excitement over conferences like the WAC, Big East and Mountain West (TCU is No. 8 in the BCS standings).  Teams like Boise State and TCU play schedules that aren’t all that challenging.  Boise’s weak schedule will keep the Broncos from a place in the national championship game.

But give a lot of other schools and conferences across the country credit for improvement and achievement.  College football’s limitation on the number of scholarships that schools can provide has created more parity across conferences and the country.  The marquee schools can’t hoard players like they once did.

More and better athletes in the south, southwest and west are stocking team rosters with greater talent than in the past.  Schools with geographic proximity to that talent often have an advantage in recruiting.  There’s an edge some places, too, in academic admissions regarding who gets into one school versus another.

Coaching makes a difference and few would argue that the Big Ten is a league of great coaches.  Certainly Kirk Ferentz at Iowa deserves the label.  Based on longevity and reputation, Penn State’s Joe Paterno does, too.  Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, who has won one national championship and lost in two other title games, is a good coach.  Michigan’s Rich Rodriquez must prove he can have the same success in Ann Arbor that he created coaching West Virginia.

The commitment of Big Ten schools to producing winners may not be as all consuming as it once was.  At places like Florida and Alabama they have no problem justifying a 24-7, 365 day commitment to football.

In college football, as in life, you get what you ask for.  Looks like the Big Ten needs to ask for more.

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Talk about name dropping.  The Vikings 24-year-old Adrian Peterson continues to have his name statistically included with the most famous running backs in pro football history.

After 36 games in the NFL, Peterson is second only to Jim Brown in average yards rushing per game (103.5 versus 104.3).  Peterson has the second highest yards per carry average (5.16) among pro football players in their third seasons.  Paul Lowe is first at 5.39.

So far in Peterson’s career he has rushed for over 100 yards in 50 percent of his games, the best percentage in NFL history. Barry Sanders at 49.7 and Brown at 49.2 are second and third.

With 10 more regular season games on the schedule, Peterson is near joining the all-time top 10 rankings for third year players in three categories—total rushing yards, touchdowns and attempts.  Have he and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell established a range in number of carries he will have each game this season?

“Oh, no, not at all,” Peterson said yesterday.  Still, Peterson, who is averaging 20 rushing attempts per game this season, will receive plenty of opportunities.

Does Peterson think about having his name included with such high past achievers like Brown and others?  “I reflect on it from time to time and it always puts things in perspective for me, and just keep me focused on my goals and the ultimate goal,” he answered.

Peterson has said he wants to rush for 2,000 yards and win NFL MVP this season.  Of course, a Super Bowl championship is presumably the ultimate goal.  He rushed for a league best 1,760 yards last season and leads the NFL now with 618.

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