Last week ESPN.com ran a feature and poll debating which is better between NFL football and NCAA football. That's not really a contest. NCAA, of course, with its tradition is a runaway winner and it took 60 percent of the online votes.

Tradition, the culture of a nation, and how a sport intertwines itself with the general populace are what make a sport great. College has that in spades over the pros.

A better comparison would've been NCAA football and major league baseball.

Both sports go back over a century and the teams, players and personalities of the '20s are as revered as today's, if not more so.

From Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson to Knute Rockne, Red Grange, Bronco Nagurski, and Ernie Nevers you have names that are still brought up regularly today. Rarely do you hear NFL announcers go on about their players of their early eras.

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Lincoln High School football coach Shane Brown is busy right up to the start of the prep grid season. He has a good excuse.

Brown is fighting the Keep Cool fire around Lincoln with a unit in the area.

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While the loss of running back Lex Hilliard to an Achilles tendon injury does nothing to help the University of Montana it certainly doesn't end their season thanks to some timely recruiting by head coach Bobby Hauck and his staff.

The Grizzlies picked up transfer running backs Greg Coleman of Iowa State and Reggie Bradshaw of Louisville over the summer and even though they may not entirely fill the void left by Hilliard they certainly keep UM's offense respectable.

Coleman and Bradshaw are both juniors and have ample experience under their belts to help UM through the transition.

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The Carroll College game at Black Hills (S. Dak.) State University was brought about by the friendship between Carroll head coach Mike Van Diest and fourth-year BHSU head coach John Scott.

The two teams will play each other next year in Helena. It will be the only non-conference game for Carroll this year and next since they play 10 conference games each season.

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The Fighting Saints have a record 127 players out for the football team this year.

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Jesse Kruse of Great Falls is expected to be at the Boulder Rodeo this weekend. What's significant about that is that he'll be going for an area rodeo Grand Slam of sorts.

Kruse has won the East Helena Valley Rodeo, Last Chance Stampede and Townsend Rodeo in succession this summer.

The only area rodeo he didn't win was the Big Sky Region college rodeo last spring, but that wasn't a professional rodeo.