>> Pssst: Even though a November arbitration hearing to determine majority ownership of the Timberwolves and Lynx is theoretically binding, don’t count on the result being a final resolution.

The delay in scheduling the hearing (Nov. 4) has been to find dates for three agreed-upon judges to meet together. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves in November already will be into their regular season after five preseason games. Team budgets for the 2024-25 season already have been approved and completed by Glen Taylor with plans for him to continue as owner throughout the season.

>> The Vikings visit the Giants in their season opener next Sunday. The game is considered a toss-up. But Minnesota will be an underdog in six of its ensuing seven games. A victory in East Rutherford, N.J., against the Giants is paramount. Otherwise, a 5-12 season is not an unreasonable forecast.

>> Next year (2025) will be a pivotal season for the Vikings. Depending on circumstances (dire season), the Vikings could be a sleeper team for Bill Belichick, despite his age (72). But the future Hall of Fame coach is first expected to be the next Cowboys’ next coach.

>> The Vikings currently have only three picks — one in the first-round and two in the fifth-round — in next year’s draft. They’re likely to receive a compensatory pick, probably late in the third-round, for losing Kirk Cousins.

>> The Vikings are now worth $5.05 billion, a 9% increase over last year, ranking No. 21 among the NFL’s 32 teams, per Forbes’ new valuations last week. Owners Zygi and Mark Wilf easily could get more than $5 billion if they put the team on the market. This is their 20th season in Minnesota, and there is no indication that they would be interested in selling.

The Packers rank No. 13 at $5.6 billion, a one-year change of 22%. No. 1 is the Cowboys at $10.1 billion, helped, in part, by the Vikings’ trade for Herschel Walker in 1989.

The Vikings receive nearly $380 million from the NFL’s new national media rights deal.

>> This is the 40th season that the Pohlad family has owned the Twins. Glen Taylor has owned the Timberwolves for 30 years, Craig Leipold the Wild for 16 years.

>> Hall of Fame former Viking Paul Krause was in Canton, Ohio, recently for Pro Football Hall of Fame festivities. Some current NFL defensive backs were astounded to learn that Krause has a still-record 82 career interceptions.

“I told them that’s what the book says,” Krause, 81, said.

To what does Krause attribute his record?

“To be able to run, jump and catch,” he said. “And, we had a head coach, Bud Grant, who told me, ‘I can’t tell you how to play free safety because you do it better than anybody.’ Bud said you can do anything you want to out there, just don’t get beat deep.’”

Krause laments today’s defensive backs getting beat deep.

“These guys, they’re getting beat deep all the time now,” he said. “That’s probably because their coaches haven’t told them how to play their spot. My goodness, you’ve got to know your own ability, and if you’ve got to take off a step early, you’ve got to do it.”

Krause resides in Lakeville. He was an exceptional golfer, a 2-handicapper, but no longer plays.

“My hips hurt, my back hurts,” he said.

>> The release of Vikings QB Jaren Hall, 26, on Thursday and the signing of QB Brett Rypien, 28, who was released by the Bears, was no surprise, despite Hall and Rypien having played well in exhibition games. Coaches rate players more on daily practices than exhibitions against vanilla defenses with no starters.

Rypien is a nephew of Mark Rypien, who quarterbacked Washington to the 1992 Super Bowl victory Buffalo at the Metrodome.

>> A little birdie says junior Pharrell Payne gets a check for $10,000 every Friday from his name, image and likeness (NIL) deal for leaving the Gophers last spring for Texas A&M. Ex-Gophers teammate Elijah Hawkins’ Texas Tech NIL deal is worth $400,000.

>> One former Gophers football season ticket holder suggests rerouting revenue from extortion fees for preferred seating to players for NIL deals.

>> A prominent former Gophers basketball player is quietly picking up the $8,000 cost of the funeral of beloved Gophers-Timberwolves assistant Jimmy Williams, who died of Parkinson’s disease at age 77 and whose service was Thursday in Quincy, Fla.

>> Venerable former football coaches Gerry Brown of St. Thomas Academy and Rich Kallok and Mal Scanlan of Cretin-Derham Hall will do the honorary coin flip before the Cadets-Raiders rivalry game Sept. 21 at the Vikings’ TCO Stadium in Eagan.

>> Don’t think new Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson, 55, wouldn’t have given consideration to replacing recently retired Gophers coach John Anderson at his alma mater.

Wilson, said former longtime Gophers associate coach Rob Fornasiere, “is the finest person I have ever met.”

>> The University of Minnesota, that lost 19-17 to a mediocre North Carolina football team on Thursday, paid the Tar Heels $200,000 to come to Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Wisconsin paid Western Michigan $1.5 million for Friday night’s 28-14 victory in Madison, Front Office Sports points out.

>> A parking lot several blocks from the Gophers stadium was charging $50 for the game Thursday against the Tar Heels.

>> People who know pitching find it interesting that Twins’ closer Jhoan Duran, whose fastball has reached 104 mph, lately has been throwing more breaking pitches.

>> The Gophers baseball job pays about $200,000 a year. Meanwhile, Tennessee just signed its baseball coach, Tony Vitello, to a $3 million per season deal.

>> The Twins’ chances of making the playoffs are 87.4 percent, per fangraphs.com.

>> Former Minneapolis Laker Frank Selvy died at age 91 the other day. That leaves former Gopher Chuck Mencel, also 91, as the last surviving player from the Minneapolis Lakers franchise. Mencel played for the Lakers from 1955 to 1957.

>> Ex-Gophers left-handed pitcher Connor Wietgrefe from Prior Lake received a $247,500 bonus to sign with the Pirates, who drafted him in the seventh round in June. Another ex-Gophers lefty, Tucker Novotny from Cottage Grove, received $125,000 as the A’s 18th-round draft pick.

>> Unknowingly, a Twins infielder tossed Joe Ryan’s 500th strikeout milestone baseball into the crowd in San Francisco because it was the third out of the inning.

>> Former Wild winger Jason Zucker of the Sabres has sold his Minneapolis home near Lake Harriet for $3.5 million.

>> A personally-designed Nike basketball shoe, retailing at $190, that Paige Bueckers from Hopkins will wear for her senior season at Connecticut will have two area codes _ 860 for Connecticut and 612 for Minnesota, reports soleretriever.com.

Overheard

>> A former basketball recruiting competitor at Florida State, speaking Thursday at the memorial service for Gophers ex-recruiting whiz Jimmy Williams, 77, on Jimmy’s response when he asked how he was able to get star Mychal Thompson out of warm weather Miami to come to freezing Minnesota: “Jimmy said Mychal had never been to heaven, but he had been to Minnesota.”