Excited about what moving to the Pac 10 will mean for Colorado’s successful track and field team?

Neither is coach Mark Wetmore.

“It affects us less than a basketball team or a volleyball team that has a conference season,” Wetmore said this week before leaving for CU’s final Big 12 outdoor championships in Norman, Okla. “For us it changes the site of the conference cross country championship and the site of the conference outdoor (track) championship. The Pac 10, soon to be 12, doesn’t have indoor track, so we won’t go to an indoor conference championship anymore. For those couple of meets a year, the cities change.”

Well, I am excited about CU competing against traditional powers Oregon and Stanford in cross country. I’d love to watch CU compete in conference track championships at Oregon’s historic Hayward Field.

“The big change for us really is no more nine-hour bus rides,” Wetmore said. “Other than that, we’re leaving a very good distance conference and going into a very good distance conference. Arguably the Big 12 is better in 2011 than the Pac 10. I think when we move, the Pac 12 will be better.”

What about recruiting?

“People ask me that a lot,” Wetmore said. “I never really thought that it might change our recruiting. I suppose it might. There might be a California recruit that wants to be seen in his own market, so to speak, but I’ve never had any recruit ask me about it.”

Wetmore said the prospect of competing at Hayward Field may not be such a big deal to today’s recruits.

“An unusually knowledgeable collegiate distance runner knows that a lot of great things have happened at Hayward Field and knows that a good crowd turns out there.” Wetmore said. “But the days of 10,000 people turning out for the Oregon Twilight Meet are gone. We were there last week and it was pretty sparse.”

The conference cross country championships next fall will be hosted by Arizona State, and next year’s conference track championships belong to Southern Cal. CU is due to host the conference cross country championships in 2013.

For their first full-cycle recruiting efforts, Colorado basketball coaches Tad Boyle and Linda Lappe deserve props for signing players receiving national recognition.

Two Boyle signees from Southern Californian made Rivals.com’s final national top 150: No. 134 Damiene Cain, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound power forward at Harvard Westlake HS in North Hollywood, and No. 146 Spencer Dinwiddie, a 6-4 point guard at Taft HS in Woodland Hills. Both signed in November and will be incoming freshmen this fall.

One of Lappe’s November signees made the prestigious women’s Parade All-America team that will be in the May 15 issue: 6-2 forward Jen Reese of Clackamas, Ore.

Parade is an insert to the Sunday Denver Post.

I just returned from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Sonny Rolllins, Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball, Henry Butler and Willie Nelson were among the highlights), and you know you’re in the Deep South when you see a local newspaper top its sports section in early May with a college football post-spring national top 25 list.

While acknowledging that he will put out another preseason top 25 after August drills, New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Ted Lewis ranked LSU as his current preseason No. 1, followed in order by Alabama and Oklahoma.

Three 2011 Colorado opponents made his top 12: Oregon (4), Stanford (9) and Arizona State (12). No other Pac-12 schools made Lewis’ top 25.

Oregon (Oct. 22) comes to Folsom Field. The Buffaloes play at Stanford (Oct. 8 ) and at ASU (Oct. 29).

Big Ten-bound Nebraska is No. 16.

In addition to Oklahoma, other Big 12 schools making Lewis’ list are Oklahoma State (5), Texas A&M (14) and Texas (17).

LEADVILLE — Funny moment Thursday night as former Colorado standout offensive tackle watched the first round of the NFL Draft with family and friends here:

Shortly after the San Francisco 49ers announced that they had selected Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith with the eighth pick, ESPN showed some highlights of Smith.

“Oh, no. Oh, no!” Solder yelled.

You guessed it: the first highlight showed Smith beating Solder on a pass rush.

“He was a load,” said Solder, who yielded only five sacks during his three seasons as a Buffs left tackle.

LEADVILLE — Waiting for his name to be called while watching the first round of the NFL Draft with family and friends here Thursday night, former Colorado offensive tackle Nate Solder gave a big thumbs up to Denver’s selection of Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller with the second overall pick.

“I trained with Von (in Irvine, Calif.),” Solder said. “He’s a great guy. That’s a great choice for the Broncos.”

Solder and Miller went head-to-head at times in 2008 and 2009 games.

“It was give and take,” Solder said. “He won some of the battles. I won some of the battles.”

Once a year, without fail, I see Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn when he’s not fund-raising or politicking on behalf of the program. Instead Bohn represented the department giving back to the community.

The event was Saturday’s annual Humane Society of Boulder Valley fund-raiser, held at the Coors Events Center. CU contributed 18 luxury seats to the Cal game for auction as well as numerous basketball and paraphernalia packages.

It also speaks volumes about the difficulty of this year’s home schedule when the only non-league football game up for auction is Cal.

More than two years after turning 50, former University of Colorado standout and 1996 U.S. Open champion Steve Jones is finally making his debut on the Champions Tour.

Jones is teaming with Doug Tewell at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa in Savannah, Ga.

The tournament has a partners (twosomes) format. The first round is today.

Jones, hampered by injuries throughout his professional golf career, had shoulder surgery in 2008 and elbow surgery in 2009.

“It feels great to be here; great to anywhere I’m playing because I haven’t played in 3 1/2 years, and I just started playing against a couple of months ago,” Jones said this week during a interview session in Savannah.

“It feels like 1982 all over again, Monday qualifying and playing against the same guys. … I got on the range and watched Dale Douglass and Hubert Green and these guys that I used to watch all the time in the ’80s. (They have) just phenomenal swings, just amazes me.

“That’s what I love about golf – you can play (well into your later years) if you’re not too injured. What a thrill to see some of these guys, J.C. Snead and Larry Ziegler, momst of them I knew back in ’82, my rookie year (on the PGA Tour).”

Jones, an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, was born in Artesia, N.M., but grew up on the Eastern Colorado plains, in Yuma, and was a two-time state sand greens champion in addition to other numerous awards.

He earned second-team All-America honors at CU in 1981, when he recorded nine top-10 tournament finishes. That’s still a school record.

BOULDER — Alec Burks might have surprised some folks here Thursday during his news conference when he said as of Wednesday he was leaning toward returning to Colorado for his junior season.

I wasn’t privy to the “real good conversations” that took place on Wednesday between the NBA and coach Tad Boyle and Burks and prospective agents. And those conversations remain confidential.

But after working the room Thursday following the announcement, here’s what I was able to piece together:

Burks became convinced that his draft stock is as high now as it could be because A) he already is rated the top player at the 2-position (shooting guard), and there is a big gap between he and the second-ranked player at that position, Washington State junior Klay Thompson. B) More college underclassmen with first-round potential than usual elected to return to school. Thus there figures to be more competition for the upper half of the first round next year. And C) One of those players that chose to stay in school, 6-8 sophomore Harrison Barnes of North Carolina, is projected as a shooting guard for the NBA. Thus, Burks likely would not be rated the top draft-eligible player at that position in 2012 like he is now.

As far as the money issue, it sounds like the Burks family, led by Alec’s mother, Dina, is not in dire straits and is doing well enough to get by. But as somebody told me, “Hey, the money is there to make everybody’s life easier.”

That’s hard to leave on the table.

And as far as a potential/probable lockout by the NBA owners on July 1, Burks said the money will be there at some point.

And, in the meantime, the agent he hires could easily borrow six figures against Burks’ earning potential.

If I were Alec, I’d help out the family and buy a fancy car.

Bling? Not so much.

Former University of Colorado men’s basketball standout Burdette Haldorson was named today to the 2011 class of the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.

Among those joining Halderson in the 12th class are former Air Force quarterback Dee Dowis, high school basketball coaching legend Dan McKiernan, USA Hockey executive Dave Ogrean, disabled athlete Jeni Armbruster and the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team.

Formal induction will be Oct. 25 at the Colorado Springs World Arena.

Here is the bio of Haldorson supplied by the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame:

Burdette Haldorson

Haldorson, a Colorado Springs resident for over forty years, left an amazing imprint in the University of Colorado basketball record book. The Austin, Minnesota, native still holds four school rebounding records some five decades after his CU playing days, including the most in a half (21), game (31) and season (346). As a senior in 1954-55, he led the Buffs to the Big Seven title by averaging 23.9 points per game, and was also named as a first-team All-American.

CU eventually went on to finish third in the nation, losing at the Final Four to eventual champion San Francisco and the legendary Bill Russell. Haldorson earned two gold medals in 1956 and 1960 as a member of the U.S. Olympic team, went on to have a brilliant career in the National Industrial Basketball League as a member of the Phillips 66ers, the team entry for Phillips 66, which hired him after his playing career. He moved to Colorado Springs to form his own gas and oil distribution business in the late 1960s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last summer with the 1960 Olympic Team, and is a member of the CU Athletic Hall of Fame and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

Congrats to University of Colorado sports information director David Plati and his staff for recently being named as one of the nation’s “Super 11″ SID offices by the Football Writers Association of America.

This marked the second consecutive year that the FWAA has awarded citations to what were deemed the best SID offices among schools in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision during the 2010 football season.

Colorado was joined by the SID offices of Clemson, Georgia, Kentucky, Navy, Northwestern, Rutgers, Southern California, Troy, Tulsa and Utah in this year’s list.

Clemson, Georgia, Rutgers, USC and Utah were repeat award winners.

In a news release, FWAA president Tommy Hicks said: “Our organization seeks to recognize the sports information offices, big and small, that go about daily tasks with professionalism as well as a personal touch. Each of the offices included in the Super 11 has established itself among the best in the country.”

Bravo to Plati and his staff.

This honor is well deserved.