KMARK reached a milestone and Duke could make the Dance

Duke is a game away from reaching the College Football Playoff. Should the 7-5 Blue Devils knock off Virginia in the ACC Championship game, the Devils will punch their ticket as the ACC’s automatic playoff bid. Duke secured the 2nd seed and an opportunity in the championship game by winning a 5 way tie breaker between them and SMU, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Georgia Tech. Despite being the only unranked member of the list, Duke made its conference victories count. With a win Saturday, they squeeze onto the list of the Nation’s best 12 remaining teams. Duke, a Cinderella story.

The Colorado Shedeur Sanders pic above is no accident. It’s the image saved as a placeholder in my writing template. Sometime around the NFL draft I locked in this format and every KMARK since starts with swapping out Shedeur for the athlete du jour. How long will this last? Can’t say, but maybe the current Browns QB1 and I are attached forever.

Speaking of forever, as of yesterday, KMARK is 100 posts deep. Without forfeiting their identity, let’s congratulate a few enthusiasts:

- Gentleman from Lake Forest, CA by way of Woodbridge, Irvine (100/100 posts read)

- He goes only by the numbers 143 (100/100 posts read)

- A Dr. of the Mind who hasn’t missed a post since joining (92/92 posts read)

- Someone’s grandfather, Trenton, NJ (85/85)

That’s only a sampling of Legends. I wish I could shout out each and every one of you.

Writing KMARK is an Inner Child exercise for me. Sports aren’t just an entertainment product for me. My whole life revolved around sports until the Real World stepped in the way. As I’ve gotten older, I understand our athletes and league’s don’t operate with the sanctity 11yr old kids afford them. They don’t deserve it most of the time (looking at you Lane). But, I will never, never divorce what is Good and Right with the Sports Universe and my personal value set observing it. I fuckin love these games. And writing about the characters, thinking through the angles, and squeezing the narratives brings me the same joy that heading to Little League practice used to deliver. As we look towards 2026, thank you for giving me 5 minutes of your day, buckle up for the next 100 posts, and never give up going crazy when your team wins. Your inner child would hate that.

I know today didn’t cover much of the NFL playoff picture, the Thunder’s outrageous efficiency ratings, or Devin Williams signing with the Mets for 3yrs/$51m. Starting tomorrow, we’re back to Business. Sports talk radio as a newsletter. In your inbox Monday through Friday.

“If you want to be good, you don’t really have a lot of choices, because it takes what it takes” - Head Ball Coach Nick Saban