Dave Skretta

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas coach Charlie Weis landed a pair of high-profile quarterbacks Thursday.

Former top recruit Dayne Crist announced on Twitter that he would join the Jayhawks for his senior season after a checkered career at Notre Dame, shortly before news broke that BYU quarterback Jake Heaps was also transferring to Kansas.

Crist will reunite with Weis, who recruited him to Notre Dame, and be eligible to play next season because he's already graduated from Notre Dame. Heaps will have to sit out under NCAA transfer rules but will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- About a week ago, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was singing the virtues of a Big East Conference that had already been poached of Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

"I mean let's be honest," Huggins said at the time, "if you have Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Connecticut, West Virginia, whoever -- Louisville, you know, whoever, it's still a very, very, very good basketball league."

Well, the conference realignment merry-go-round promptly sent West Virginia spinning off to the Big 12, and Huggins is now praising a conference that he's been involved with before, one that added West Virginia only because it lost Texas A&M and Missouri is headed out the door.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Danica Patrick is ready for one last hurrah in IndyCars before she turns her attention entirely to her blossoming stock car career.

The IndyCar icon has raced a partial Nationwide schedule the past two seasons during her much-publicized transition to NASCAR. Her final open-wheel race is the IndyCar World Championships on Oct. 16 in Las Vegas, and then it's on to her full-time ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports.

"I'm ready for change," Patrick said Friday at Kansas Speedway, where she was preparing for Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

JOPLIN, Mo. — There’s a scar through the middle of Joplin, a mile wide and six miles long. All that’s left are a few twisted tree stumps, chunks of chewed up pavement and the tattered remains of homes and businesses.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Davy Arnaud remembers gazing into the stands at Arrowhead Stadium on a crisp March day and nearly being able to count the number of fans.

The midfielder was playing for the Major League Soccer club in Kansas City against Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa. It was a quarterfinal of the CONCACAF Champions League, and Arnaud estimates there were about 400 people that day -- which means nearly 80,000 empty seats were staring right back at him.

NEW YORK -- It's hardly rare that celebrities and athletes visit troops overseas.

Bob Hope became synonymous with USO tours some 60 years ago, and Bing Crosby toured bases in Europe during World War II. Marilyn Monroe visited Korea during the 1950s, NFL players went to Vietnam in the '60s, and Project Salute took dozens of entertainers to the Persian Gulf.

Less common is an athlete or celebrity volunteering to visit the most dangerous bases on the front line, then being so moved by the experience it becomes an annual trip.