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Explosion of NIL money adds new wrinkle to 2025 NBA draft decisions

Dwyane Wade shares thoughts on Dallas Mavericks getting first pick NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade shares his thoughts on the NBA and whether or not the Mavericks getting the first pick in the draft is a “coincidence.” Sports Seriously CHICAGO − Yaxel Lendeborg rubbed his hands together seated inside Wintrust Arena, a wave of […]

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CHICAGO − Yaxel Lendeborg rubbed his hands together seated inside Wintrust Arena, a wave of excitement and anxiety coursing through him as he laid out the options again before his first official NBA audition was set to begin. The former UAB star is an intriguing figure among the group of players taking part in this week’s 2025 NBA Draft Combine. He’s facing the sort of decision prospects invited to this annual league event never did in the past. 

Lendeborg is a potential late first-round draft pick, according to draft experts, who could also slide into the second round – when contracts are not guaranteed – depending on how his pre-draft workouts go. The 6-foot-10 big man also committed to Michigan in April as one of the country’s most coveted transfers amidst an explosion of money being paid to college football and basketball players through name, image and likeness compensation and the anticipated implementation of revenue sharing by the NCAA for the 2025-26 season.    

The 22-year-old has until the NCAA’s May 28 withdrawal date to pull out of the draft and retain his college eligibility. And sounds torn about it right now. More torn than any of the other college hopefuls around him this week.

“The NBA is ultimately the goal for a lot of guys. It’s just college is so tempting because of the money,” Lendeborg told USA TODAY Sports. “I’m 50-50 between the NBA and Michigan, and I just hope that a team can let me know early so I don’t mess anything up.”

How NIL changed the 2025 NBA draft

The dynamics and financial implications of the traditional NBA draft decision tree have changed because of the money players can now make at the college level. There were only 106 early entrants in the 2025 NBA draft, which is the lowest figure in a decade and down from 353 in 2021. There were also more players (18) from the Portsmouth Invitational, a pre-draft event for college seniors, invited to the NBA Draft Combine than recent years.  

The trends are in direct correlation to the rapid increase in NIL money being doled out by college basketball programs. For one season, the starter for a power conference team in college will often make more than an NBA player on the first year of a rookie deal. For many, it might be the most money they ever make in one season playing basketball.

The attempts to thread that needle, of maximizing money made in college and in the NBA, has infused chaos into the college ranks through the transfer portal and constant roster churn. It played out this week in Chicago as numerous college coaching staffs were on hand to both support their participating players at the NBA draft combine, and quietly hope the feedback convinces them to come back to college for another season. 

“A case of food poisoning – nothing serious – would be good for the University of Michigan right now,” Wolverines assistant coach Mike Boynton joked on Tuesday before explaining they always knew there was a chance Lendeborg would go to the NBA.

It’s yet another ripple effect of the power shift within college sports.

“We’ve got the best of both worlds,” said St. John’s star R.J. Luis, who entered the NBA draft and the NCAA’s transfer portal this offseason. “We’re basically like semi-pros. We got like one-year contracts basically (in college). It’s just about trying to find the best opportunity at the right moment.”

‘Good for the basketball ecosystem’

The NBA doesn’t seem to mind this, either.

Five league executives told USA TODAY Sports at the draft combine that the implementation of name, image and likeness at the college level has produced minimal disruptions for the league and its draft process. Some view it as a positive development despite the issues NIL created for college basketball teams. As one NBA general manager put it, “The guys will come into the draft eventually.”

“You’re still getting the top-end guys, but you’re not going to get sophomores and juniors,” said an NBA front office executive who runs his team’s college scouting operation. “You’re going to see a gap in the draft the next couple years, especially in the second round. But most guys choosing to go back (to college) would struggle to stay (in the NBA) anyways. Now these guys can build brands in college. In the long run, it might be better.”

“It’s good for the basketball ecosystem,” added another NBA team executive.  

But there will still be players like Lendeborg placed in a precarious spot, hoping the measurements, scrimmage performances and meetings with NBA officials at the combine and a flurry of workouts the next two weeks provide more clarity. 

The Pennsauken, New Jersey native only played 11 varsity basketball games in high school and had to go the junior college route before arriving at UAB. There is no precedent for what he’s going through because a fringe first-round pick five years ago wouldn’t also be mulling NIL deals worth millions of dollars. 

He doesn’t want to stay in school just because of the money. But he also doesn’t want to go to the NBA and not have a chance to be a rotation player quickly. He only needs one team to promise he will get one to stay in the draft. He just needs to know before May 28.

“If it doesn’t happen by then,” Lendeborg said, “then the decision is going to be really hard to make.”



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Sankey discusses SEC’s role in future College Football Playoff structure at media days

Commissioner Greg Sankey opened SEC Football Media Days on Monday by giving a shoutout to the city of Atlanta for hosting the unofficial kickoff event and noting his gratitude for the conference’s newest sponsor in Wayne-Sanderson Farms. He quickly pivoted into a monologue about how strong he believes each member institution is on the field […]

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Commissioner Greg Sankey opened SEC Football Media Days on Monday by giving a shoutout to the city of Atlanta for hosting the unofficial kickoff event and noting his gratitude for the conference’s newest sponsor in Wayne-Sanderson Farms. He quickly pivoted into a monologue about how strong he believes each member institution is on the field while discussing some of the off-field headlines that have taken the college football world by storm this summer.

Sankey subtly addressed rumors that the SEC might pull away from the NCAA if the governing body slips up when managing the College Football Playoff or name, image, and likeness (NIL) issues and revenue sharing. Using a marathon as a metaphor, he said the “messy” days of paying athletes are starting to simmer down after a recent federal settlement and believes the best of the race is ahead.

“I have run and finished 41 marathons in my lifetime. It’s been a while, but I do remember the importance of getting it off to the right kind of start,” Sankey said. “We’re in the middle of change, and in the middle of anything significant, it will get messy. This doesn’t mean you leave. In a marathon, it doesn’t mean you step off the course because myself — as poorly as I may have felt sometimes after two or three miles – recall that those moments might actually produce the best efforts.”

The rest of the race could include the conference’s role in controlling how future College Football Playoff brackets look. According to Sankey, the SEC and Big Ten have “authority” when it comes to the format after the 2025 season.

However, Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti are not currently aligned to pack the most powerful punch – not for a lack of communication, though, as Sankey noted they spoke four times last week.

“I think there’s this notion that there has to be this magic moment and something has to happen with expansion and it has to be forced – no,” Sankey said. “When you’re given authority, you want to be responsible in using that authority. I think both of us are prepared to do so. The upfront responsibility in this, maybe where some of the confusion lies, is we have the ability to present a format or format ideas, gather information, see if we can all agree within that room. We don’t need unanimity.”

The Big Ten, which has won the last two national championships, favors a 4-4-2-2-1 format, giving four automatic bids to the SEC and Big Ten and awarding the ACC and Big 12 two bids apiece. The SEC switched gears at its spring meetings in Florida, now favoring five conference champions and 11 at-large bids, which would presumably favor the top conferences most seasons.

The commissioner, now in his 10th year leading the SEC, backed up such authoritative statements with on-field evidence of his conference’s domination.

“For the 26th consecutive season, we led the nation in football attendance,” Sankey said, pointing to the league’s gridiron success against non-conference Power Four opponents. “It’s a special place with a remarkable set of people, remarkable competition, and remarkable achievements.”

Beyond backing up the SEC’s status as a “super conference,” Sankey also pointed to what he believes is a need for further structure in college athletics to be established by federal lawmakers. Specifically, Sankey referenced the recently introduced the SCORE Act, a U.S. House bill that provides for a national framework for NIL in college sports. The commissioner sees the policy proposal as progress.

“That’s an important moment,” Sankey said. “I think what’s happening in college athletics is a nonpartisan issue, but using the typical nomenclature, to have members of both of our major political parties willing to step out and introduce the SCORE Act is a positive step.”

While Sankey and other administrators work to straighten out the details that will determine college football’s long-term future, the student-athletes and coaches aim to return the SEC to the top of the game’s mountain at year’s end. After Ohio State claimed the 2024 national title, 2023-2024 became the first two-year stretch since 2013-2014 that an SEC team did not win the national championship.

Each of the SEC’s 16 programs will kickoff the 2025 season in late August.



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Two Wildcats Taken on Final Day of 2025 MLB Draft

MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State saw two baseball players selected on the final day of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft, as shortstop Maximus Martin and left-handed pitcher Jacob Frost heard their names called on Monday.   Martin was selected in the 10th round by the Boston Red Sox with the 298th overall pick, followed by […]

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MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State saw two baseball players selected on the final day of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft, as shortstop Maximus Martin and left-handed pitcher Jacob Frost heard their names called on Monday.
 
Martin was selected in the 10th round by the Boston Red Sox with the 298th overall pick, followed by Frost, who was taken with the 315th pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers to close out the round. Martin becomes just the second Wildcat ever drafted by the Red Sox, joining Robert Youngdahl (2011), while Frost is the ninth player in program history selected by the Dodgers.
 
Under seventh-year head coach Pete Hughes, K-State has had 12 players selected within the first 10 rounds. In total, Hughes has overseen 91 players selected in the MLB Draft, including eight first-rounders during his 28 seasons as a head coach while he has recruited 145 players who have gone on to play professionally.
 
In his first season at K-State, Martin earned ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-Region honors and was named Second Team All-Big 12. A native of Edgewater Park, New Jersey, he slashed .320/.420/.612, tallying a team-high 18 doubles and 14 home runs – tied for fourth-most in a single season in program history.
 
Martin was one of the league’s top offensive performers, finishing the regular season ranked in the Big 12’s top 10 in three statistical categories. He garnered both Golden Spikes Award and National Shortstop of the Week recognition. He led the team with 18 games with two or more hits and ranked second with 15 multi-RBI games.
 
Frost caps his second season with the Cats where earned his first All-Big 12 accolade in 2025, striking out 75 batters while holding opponents to a .238 batting average – the eighth-best mark in the league. The St. Louis, Missouri, product was one of two K-State pitchers to record 10 or more strikeouts in a single game this season, notching a career-high 10 against KU. He also led the Big 12 with 22 strikeouts looking in conference play.
 
Across two seasons with the Wildcats, Frost posted a 4-6 record with a 6.49 ERA and totaled 115 strikeouts over 32 appearances and 23 starts, including three quality starts. In 2024, he helped lead K-State to its ninth no-hitter in program history.



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Argument over ‘valid buisiness purpose’ for NIL collectives threatens college sports settlement | National Sports

Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image likeness payments to players are supposed to have. The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting […]

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Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image likeness payments to players are supposed to have.

The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.

Kessler told AP his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to AP’s request for a comment.

Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”

When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called “collectives” that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now, but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.


AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.



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Chat Wrap

Bucknuts.com’s Steve Helwagen hosted his weekly Chat on Monday night on The Front Row message board. Check out the transcript below. Programming Note: Steve will again join Ohio State Buckeyes Live at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Check out The Front Row for access details after 11 a.m. on Wednesday. ButlerBuck: Players may want all they can […]

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Chat Wrap

Bucknuts.com’s Steve Helwagen hosted his weekly Chat on Monday night on The Front Row message board. Check out the transcript below.

Programming Note: Steve will again join Ohio State Buckeyes Live at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Check out The Front Row for access details after 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

ButlerBuck: Players may want all they can get as a HS kid.

For hoops, Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg would have been the #1 draft pick whether they went to a blue blood or not.

For football, getting that development during college is more important since the NFL watches you for 3 years.

Will kids get that idea/does OSU use that as a basketball recruiting pitch from OSU or another pigskin blue blood?

OSU hoops would use that to recruit those 5* players….you’ll be #1 wherever you go.  You just need to get the most playing time you can. You’ll get all the minutes you can play here. At UK and Duke, maybe not

Helwagen: Yeah, lot of ifs in there. Every kid’s upbringing, wherewithal and recruitment is different. Some have to have as much as they can get their hands on as soon as possible. Some are interested in being one and done and on to the league. Some are content to play the long game to prolong their development and maximize their pro value.

So, yeah, you can look at it and say Ohio State can help you get there. But if you watched the NBA Finals, here were the schools of the starters:

Pacers: Pascal Siakam (New Mexico State), Aaron Nesmith (Vanderbilt), Myles Turner (Texas), Andrew Nembhard (Gonzaga), Tyrese Haliburton (Iowa State)

Thunder: Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga), Jalen Williams (Santa Clara), Isaiah Hartenstein (Germany/Lithuania), Lu Dort (Arizona State), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Kentucky)

Only one real blueblood there. You can get there from anywhere, so why not Ohio State? Of course, will need Ohio State to be competitive in the pay department.

foxr2001: Don’t know if you can answer this and has nothing to do with OSU. BTN has aired a few US women’s volleyball games, which has nothing to do with the B1G. I can only imagine its some reciprocal agreement with FOX that they (BTN) air events when FOX doesn’t have room on their schedule or something like that. Any intel on why these are airing on BTN?

Two other completely different questions for you. The Columbus Dispatch said that McGuff was able to drive again, presumably meaning that his license was temporarily suspended. The article didn’t go into much detail about his current status though. Has his DUI arrest already been processed and if so, what penalty(ies) did he receive? Did the university do anything to him or are they going to like suspend him for a few games? Hey, maybe OSU will suspend him in the MIDDLE of the non-conference schedule when we are playing our easiest two games!

Other question, no one here at Bucknuts has mentioned Cleveland getting an WNBA franchise. I imagine you are a Cavs fan, how do you feel with the city sharing the court with a women’s team? Do you think, with the improved success in the WNBA that this franchise will survive, unlike Cleveland’s earlier WNBA franchise?

Thanks Steve.

Helwagen: I was not aware BTN was airing women’s USA volleyball events, but it makes sense if FOX needs an outlet that they do that. ESPN puts some NCAA events it can’t get on ESPN or ESPN2 on SEC Network (usually involving an SEC team). Big Ten is big in volleyball and maybe they rationalized some of the players were from Big Ten schools.

Have not heard anything about McGuff or his status. I assume the judge in his case has granted him work driving privileges. I assume if Ohio State is going to suspend him, it will happen before the season starts. No idea when his next court appearance would be. I will try and check on that. Not sure how he beats the rap if they play the video at trial, unless he can prove he was drugged somehow.

Don’t really have a thought about the WNBA in Cleveland. It seems the league has 10-12 needle movers who draw crowds. People will come there to watch Caitlin Clark and some of the others. But to win and contend you need stars. Those are hard to come by. Good luck and, I agree, I hope it goes better than the last time. Sophie Cunningham’s comments about why would anybody want to play in Cleveland were not the least bit helpful. LOL

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Argument over ‘valid buisiness purpose’ for NIL collectives threatens college sports settlement

Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image likeness payments to players are supposed to have. The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting […]

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Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image likeness payments to players are supposed to have.

The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

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A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.

Kessler told AP his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to AP’s request for a comment.

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Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”

When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called “collectives” that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now, but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

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Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports



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Lane Kiffin calls out rev-share rules, says some teams ‘not staying within’ cap

While adjusting to the revenue-sharing era in college athletics, coaches have made their frustrations clear. Big 12 coaches called for transparency and clarity last week at the conference’s media days, and Lane Kiffin also shared his thoughts on the post-House v. NCAA settlement landscape. Kiffin called out the rules around revenue-sharing set under the agreement. […]

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While adjusting to the revenue-sharing era in college athletics, coaches have made their frustrations clear. Big 12 coaches called for transparency and clarity last week at the conference’s media days, and Lane Kiffin also shared his thoughts on the post-House v. NCAA settlement landscape.

Kiffin called out the rules around revenue-sharing set under the agreement. Schools are now able to directly share up to $20.5 million with athletes, and the first payments went out this month. That figure is set to increase annually under the 10-year settlement.

Rev-share offers cannot be sent to recruits until their senior years of high school, meaning Aug. 1 is a landmark date. As Kiffin looked at where things stand, he sees schools going above that $20.5 million cap. That adds to the questions he has.

“We get a lot of questions like, what’s it like now?” Kiffin said in his remarks Monday at SEC Media Days. “We’ve been operating – we have – under these cap guidelines of what was coming and what it was going look like. I think we’ve done a really good job of that. Obviously means you can’t sign as many players as you would like at times because you have a budget. So we’re obviously hopeful that will be rewarded by doing that.

“I think it’s obvious people aren’t staying within that cap, so I think the whole thing will be, what does that look like? That’s what we don’t know. What does it look like when you don’t and what are the punishments for that? Do you win and that comes later? So that’s remained to be seen, but already got the questions about the cap, what that’s like having to do that. We’ve been doing that for a while, operating on that.”

As the NIL era transformed college sports, Lane Kiffin was outspoken about its impact. He was also quick to make jokes on social media and recalled a quip about Texas A&M’s highly rated recruiting class in 2022 as dollars started flowing.

The cap set by the House settlement is for revenue-sharing from the school. Third-party NIL deals will be vetted by the Deloitte-operated clearinghouse, NIL Go, if they are worth more than $600. That has been the subject of frustration from NIL collectives in light of recent guidance from the College Sports Commission.

But when asked whether there should be a salary cap in college football – something Deion Sanders suggested a week ago at Big 12 Media Days – Kiffin said that’s the goal with the rev-share limit. But he stressed the need for clarity with regard to following the rules.

“I think that’s what we attempted. Doesn’t seem like that’s working very well,” Kiffin said of the $20.5 million cap. “So yeah, I mean, stating the obvious. That was the intention of what was going on because there were so many complaints when NIL started about, okay, everybody has different advantages, and different payrolls. Saw those a couple years ago. I was up here at one of these joking about a luxury tax based on A&M’s spending or whatever it was. So that was supposed to be being fix, and now it’s not.

“Again, we’ve tried to follow the guidelines because that’s what we were told we needed to do. I’m not saying they’re wrong for doing it – I’m not calling anybody out. If the system isn’t solid enough to prevent that, then we really don’t have a system. So you’re not operating on a salary cap.”



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