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Official 2021 College Football thread
The opening games are a little over 5 weeks away.
Now that NIL is in place, and current TV deals are up for renewal, the realignment carousel music is starting. Report: Texas, Oklahoma in talks to bolt Big 12 for SEC |
Anything to get rid of that awful Longhorn Network
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I thought Oklahoma St. was legally tied to Oklahoma.
I hope the B1G picks up Pitt. Not sure who the 16th would be. |
Take a Syracuse or BC.
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It'd be a while.
Both OU & Texas TV rights are tied up until 2024-25, even if they left tomorrow they go without their media rights until then. As this popped up earlier it hit me that, really, it's probably just a matter of time until teams in the new semi-pro (and I'm being generous) "college" football leagues start relocating their brands to better media markets. Miss State could be based in Jackson instead of Starkvegas and so forth. |
Love to see OK and TX in the SEC.
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Bobby Bowden has a "terminal medical condition"
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This is from 2016, but the dates still hold:
"The ACC also extended its conference rights deal nine years through 2035-36. The conference's grant of rights makes it financially untenable for a school to leave, guaranteeing in the 20 years of the deal that a school's media rights, including revenue, for all home games would remain with the ACC regardless of the school's affiliation." Pitt, BC, Syracuse, etc aren't going anywhere without a massive shift that causes the entire system to be ripped up. |
[Jason Whitely] BREAKING: Early next week, the @TexasLonghorns and @UofOklahoma will send a letter to the @Big12Conference stating that neither school will renew their media contracts when they expire in 2025.
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SEC Network quick to join in on the speculation/fun.
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Pod D: Technically SEC, but eh - you guys stay over there k thx
edit: with an FU to Arky I guess by exiling them over Tamu |
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That's probably more of a hypothetical nod to trying to mollify A&M |
I would think having Texas/A&M playing every year, especially after the upcoming battle to keep them out of the SEC, will be in the SEC and its TV partner's best interests.
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They're whining enough already, why poke them with a hypothetical exercise? Plenty of time for that once they have to reorganize for real. |
Here's a solid summary of all of the potential dominoes that could fall if this happens (and it sounds like it is all but over and all that will be left is for the lawyers to handle the divorce details and timing of the exit).
Oklahoma, Texas jump to SEC has massive ESPN, conference implications |
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Apparently the SEC kept A&M in the dark about Texas and OU. The word is they've been discussing this for at least six months, but A&M only found out a couple of weeks ago, and leaked the story to their Houston Chronicle contact.
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If I had a magic wand, I'd revert conference affiliations back to 1992 or so (right after FSU -> ACC and Penn St -> Big 10 happened).
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If you have a magic wand you better bring back the 80s Southwestern Conference. Can you imagine the shit those teams would do with NIL?
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I'm hoping that if/when this happens, Big 10 and ACC make the move up to 16, as well. I think that gives WVU the best chance to find a home once the dominos all fall. Maybe Kansas and Missouri (unlikely) or an ACC team or three to the Big 10, then that opens up the chance for ACC or long shot SEC to backfill with WVU as an option. I'd guess if Missouri would leave, the SEC would make a big play to try to get into the state of North Carolina, but that would be a tough political move for either UNC or North Carolina State.
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/waits for the superconferences
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I hate the idea of 4 super conferences, which seems most likely and if you are going this route you might as well go full European soccer mode and make tiered leagues with relegation/promotion turn the playoffs into "cup" competitions.
Super League - Top 32 teams 4 team play for the National championship Bottom 8 relegated to the closest regional league Then lump in FCS teams with the remaining FBS to come up with 8 regional leagues of 28 teams (Would need to find a couple more teams from D2 to bring up. Top 4 teams in each region make the playoffs, with the winner promoted to Super League, 8 total promoted each year. Yes, my idea is completely absurd, but I guarantee the NCAA will find a way to top it when all is said and done going be there track record. |
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UNC would, of course, rather remain a respected elder in the ACC and will (I assume) do everything in its power to help keep the ACC relevant and make sure that they are one of the Super Conferences when the shakeout is all done. I don't see them wanting to move to the SEC. I don't know who would decide for NC State. But I could see a move to the SEC being good for them if the SEC wants it. Being the only NC school in the conference would seem to be a better deal than being the "other" North Carolina public school in the ACC. But this is all me talking out of my ass. People who follow this stuff more closely than I do probably have a better sense of what is possible/likely, |
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I think NC State fans generally think the ACC looks out for UNC so I'd think they would be happy to get into the SEC. But maybe I'm wrong. I read something that said assuming Texas and OU are leaving, the best place for them for the good of the sport would be the ACC as it gives Clemson some competition and prevents the SEC from growing too top heavy. |
Im glad all the awful play over the past few years hasnt effected the Texas ego.
Is being a bottom feeder in the SEC going to bring their prestige levels back up? |
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This is your answer:
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I'm an NC State alum and contributor to the athletic department, and I can assure you that NC State is not going to move to the SEC. Thirteen of the current fourteen SEC stadiums have a higher seating capacity than Carter-Finley Stadium, and we would have to add 20,000 seats just to get to the 80,000 seat midpoint of those SEC stadiums. Plus, we're historically a mediocre football program, but at least we usually win 7 or 8 games a year and go to a minor bowl. There's no way we'd want to be battling it out with Vanderbilt every year for last place in the SEC. |
But 4th or 5th place in your pod sounds better than last place in the conference!
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When I was at UNC for law school, I went to a football game with a friend who went to Tennessee for undergrad. He called UNC football the "rule of 1/3." The stadium was 1/3 as big, the team was 1/3 as good, and the fans were 1/3 as crazy. Edit--I went to Emory undergrad, which was D3 no football. So I was happy to go to any college football game. |
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Along those same lines, UNC actually decreased the seating capacity of Keenan Stadium from 63,000 to 51,000 in 2017. |
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Sark is going to return to getting drunk if he has to play a SEC schedule. |
Reports saying that the SEC have approached Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson and FSU in an attempt to make a 20 team "super conference."
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If OU/UT are gone, the Big 12 is done.
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At a certain point there's no need for a national playoff anymore. I guess you'd just have an SEC playoff and LOL if you're in another conference, go play in a bowl game if you really feel like it. |
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In addition to Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, there is some speculation on a SEC-ACC merger. If that comes to fruition, they could form their own cartel, essentially a AAA farm system for the NFL. With the pod system, they can somewhat emulate the NFL divisions and playoffs. The "National Championship Game" would be their version of the Super Bowl. |
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If they do that madness, I sure hope they set it up for promotion/relegation divisions within the new conference. Maybe the minnows could have a Cup to play for or something while the premium programs played in the only part anyone gave a damn about. |
I don't see what the SEC gets from an ACC merger. It surely helps the ACC, but all the SEC gets is, what, NC out of it?
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I guess . . . more men's basketball relevance? But my sense is that even men's basketball is basically a rounding error when talking about the $$ generated by SEC football. |
(Clemson is still in the ACC, right?)
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I saw an article (Forgot source), that talked about the B1G raiding the PAC12 and picking USC, Colorado, UW and ASU. Those 4 give you the TV markets in LA, Seattle, Denver and Phoenix. The B1Gs footprint would cover something like 17of the top 25 markets.
Throw in Cal and Stanford for academics and Oregon and Nike. The B1G then breaks them into 3x7 pods keeping the WC teams together. That would trump OU and UT going to the SEC. |
Does it seem too predictable that, in another 15-20 years, these mega conferences are not going to need Northwestern and Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, etc. and be looking to downsize?
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I think I'm just going to follow the Ivy League from now on. And the Big Sky.
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Nathan Ford's arm looks pretty strong.
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Cover them, yes. Have more eyeballs than much smaller markets that actually watch college football, no. edit to expand: Take Birmingham, where college football ratings are often 10x -- TEN TIMES -- the size of the national average. That's a 700,000 TV household market that can provide more viewers than every market not named New York. |
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What some aren't seeing is this time around eyeballs on your games means more or, at minimum, as much as market. With sports moving away from basic cable and over to subscription services such as ESPN+, Amazon prime, and potentially Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, paramount+, HBO Max and anyone else that wants to separate themselves in the subscription wars you need eyeballs more than markets. |
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Tree falling in an empty forest etc |
When you add 4 larger markets, of course there is diversity, but LA is probably more profitable than Ames, IA.
And dont forget that the B1G network caters to B1G fans. If you git NY may as well get LA. Im sure both have se fans there. Millions? |
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I dont think the B1G listens to ESPN, so my guess is Kansas to the ACC. Thats a BB conference after all.
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Bob Bowlsby accuses ESPN of tortious interference - Frogs O' War
Sounds like ESPN is trying to get enough teams to leave the Big 12 for the AAC, so that UTOU can leave without penalty. Pretty shitty, but I doubt there are any consequences for bad behavior. ESPN probably gets out of what will be a bad deal with the Big 12 and gets those teams to the SEC more quickly. |
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Is it pretty shitty on the part of ESPN though? I am serious when I ask the question. This feels like something that is just encouraged and probably required in that world. Maybe I am just thinking the worst of the people in that world but this feels like it is only a problem because it is being done to the Big 12. |
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ESPN gets caught trying to hurt the Big 10 or SEC: Major scandal. People get fired. ESPN gets caught trying to hurt the Big 12: Vague sense of that's not cool. ESPN gets caught trying to hurt a non Power Conference: To the extent anyone notices or cares, they think it's totally fine. |
Word out of the PAC12 media days is they do not want any of the leftover B8 schools. There was a lot of talk about a merger or partnership with the B1G.
If true, this is a lot bigger than OU/TX to the SEC. |
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It's actually about even more than that. I'll repost (with minor edits) what I had somewhere else: ESPN has total rights with AAC with a 10 year deal that started in 2019 (a paltry $80M per year for the entire league). The Big XII rights are split between ESPN and Fox. So ESPN has a very vested interest in the remaining Big XII schools joining the AAC so they have them over a barrel with rights as opposed to if the Big XII absorbed some AAC teams. This also explains why it was such a quick "no" when the Big XII tried to open up negotiations earlier this year. This was already brewing. Big 12 television partners decline preemptive negotiations, Texas Tech president says Quote:
It also takes one conference off the table and pretty much auto-relegates them to lesser status. It’s clear they want the SEC rights for a flagship brand and then the Big AAC for inventory. Whatever the new equivalent of Thursday and Friday night MAC-tion is, here comes the new league, which is perfect for them over-saturating ESPN2 and ESPNU with garbage football (like my beloved Kansas). Quote:
It's coming but the Arkansas and Missouris and Washington States, etc, of the world are going to try and cash the good checks as long as they keep coming. This time, it's wipe out the remaining 8 Big XII schools and prevent them from building their brand. Next will be the breakaway league i when Ohio State gets tired of sharing their money with Northwestern and Clemson doesn't get why they have to share with Pitt. We're probably about 12 years away from the headline "Shocked Mississippi Senators threaten to sue SEC for not including any state schools in new SEC" (ACC grant of rights is 2036, right? so it'll be about 3 years before that). It's oddly contradictory as it means Disney is playing the long game with a short-sighted idea: to lock up the strongest brand, all while squeezing out and other competition. However, that competition is also advertising. Sure, the SEC thinks they can play games by themselves but if there are only 20 alumni bases watching, it's going to be a lot smaller piece of the pie. For as crappy as Kansas football is, I'll watch their games most because I went there. I wouldn't be in this new system. It's like when MLB decided to shoot itself in the foot by contracting 40+ minor league teams, walking billboards in all sorts of small town America for baseball. But, hey, it'll save a few bucks today and give the more control. And they'll look back in 30 more years and be asking "hey, where did all the fans go?" Just like they're starting to do now as the game grows increasingly local and regional rather than a national sport (and has been for more than 20 years as they only promote a couple of teams nationally and let the rest starve). SI |
This seems to make a lot of sense as a counter to the SEC's moves.
Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC in discussions about forming alliance: Sources - The Athletic |
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I suggested this 2 weeks ago Damn conferences should hire me |
It sounds good in theory but what would it do in practice? If we're talking football, you still can only play 12~14 games a year and they will still mostly be in conference.
SI |
I think there would be a small amount of scheduling synergy, but I took it to mean they would align as a voting block to ensure the SEC doesn't essentially get to place as many teams as they want into the CFP and similar decisions that would adversely affect each individual conference on its own.
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If they go to 12, the most likely way to prevent the SEC from having 4-6 of those is to gift spots to various cannon fodder. Maybe that's what bloc voting is intending but with likely only 4 major conferences left standing, everybody meaningful in the picture is going to be looking at 1-2 min regardless. edit to add: Final CFP rankings after conference championship last year, tweaking for future alignments SEC 5 (counting Oklahoma) ACC 2 (counting ND) B10 2 B12 1 (not sure where Iowa State ends up) Non P5 2 Coastal was #12, so they'd be hypothetically out in favor of a Pac 12 champ I guess Since 2020 was so weird, 2019 numbers would have SEC 5 (counting OU), B10 would have claimed 3. *obviously not knowing where Iowa State (2020) and Baylor (2019) will end up makes this less than precise. edit 2: Probably worth noting that those rankings were from committee voters than only counted 2 SEC members among their numbers. It's not as if there's not already a sizable majority available to the remainder of the conferences. |
I don't mean the literal CFP committee spots, I'm talking about seats at the table to determine what the rules are going to be in the next iteration of the CFP. If they can block an SEC initiative to make it virtually certain the SEC is going to get 7-8 of 12 spots (remember, there may not be a P5 when this is all determined - the Big 12 appears to be gone already, which reduces the number of "legitimate contenders" who will get spots), then that is definitely in those three conferences' best interests.
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I don't know that there has to be an initiative to make that possible, on field might very well do it. 5-6 seem likely on a regular basis, you only need a down year with somebody getting only their (presumed) automatic qualifier to open that door for 7 or more. |
UK named Will Levis starting QB (apparently he transferred from Penn State? Never heard of him until today) with local product Beau Allen as the #2. Joey Gatewood, transfer from Auburn? Apparently going to transfer again. I mean dude, if you can't crack the lineup at UK - whose best QB of the past 5+ years was a WR - you might want to downsize your expectations during the next school search. Or change positions.
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He's the guy who nearly rallied them from a 24-3 deficit against Nebraska after Clifford got benched. Started the next week vs Iowa with so-so production and then Clifford regained the job. As for Gatewood, he was the likely transfer candidate regardless of whether he was officially the #2 or the #3. He's farther along his career than hometown boy Beau Allen, who could very well be the backup regardless of who is more game ready today based simply on his time remaining to develop. A situation not entirely dissimilar to how he was beaten out by Bo Nix at Auburn come to think of it. Wherever he ends up, I'd recommend he pick a program where there isn't a geographically anointed QB in the wings. |
As a QB, Levis is mainly a fullback. He seemed totally lost running RPOs but he's a big, strong guy.
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What's funny is that Stoops essentially said in so many words that the competition wasn't even close. So I guess that means yet another season without an actual QB.
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Which, really, has been their most productive offensive approach for quite a few years now. |
If only they had experimented with Lynn Bowden a year earlier...
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Former Miami Hurricanes player Rashaun Jones arrested in 2006 murder of teammate Bryan Pata
Great to finally see an arrest made |
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The look on his face in that picture where the team is honoring Pata is disturbing. Almost smug, so glad to see this arrest made as he was the primary suspect through most of the investigation. |
Kudos to #5 GA playing #3 Clemson and #1 Alabama playing #14 Miami as first games.
Also kudos to the Razorbacks taking on Rice. Definitely a dangerous opponent and not a sure thing! |
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2 to 3 million reasons that's happening (more added revenue for Clemson than Georgia, because their buyout with Wyoming was about $700k less the Georgia's buyout of San Jose State) |
Big Ten, ACC, Pac-12 alliance to combat SEC's influence expected to be announced Tuesday - CBSSports.com
It almost feels like the college football world wants to be like pre-WW1 Europe. |
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So in this scenario, Kirby Smart will be shot by a DB from Georgia Tech and football will be plummeted into years of bloodshed? |
Illinois/Nebraska on Fox Saturday to kickoff the season. Kind of a crap game, but at least its college football.
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I think Nebraska will be improved, but yeah not a Saturday of stellar matchups. I am curious to see what UCLA looks like ion their game. Chip Kelly has to be out if they don't show some major improvement this season.
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I'll be at the UCLA-Hawaii game as I picked up season tickets again.
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What are your thoughts on the team this year, does DTR finally have that breakthrough? |
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I think he had it last year, we basically pissed away some games that we should have easily won, *cough* Stanford/USC *cough*. But I'm a UCLA fan and things never come easy for us. |
This was amazing
https://twitter.com/apthirteen/statu...29988700299267 |
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That was great. |
Cool story.
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And we're off.
Illinois and Nebby struggling a little on offense to start the game. I am really excited it has started |
Rode by the Game Day set up yesterday. Wasn't expecting that at old Turner Field. Pretty wild just riding up on it.
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Illinois up 16-9 at halftime. If Nebraska loses this game, Scott Frost might get fired on the tarmac before boarding the team plane (e.g. USC and Lane Kiffin).
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Nebby is such a poorly coached team. I cannot figure out how Frost went undefeated at UCF.
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He had superior talent at UCF than what he has at Nebraska, and he had to beat teams like East Carolina and Tulane instead of Ohio State and Wisconsin. |
"Leadership and culture" are better than ever .... that phrase seems likely to be on the tombstone of Scott Frost's HC career.
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Have a look at their schedule |
Is that the same Martinez kid at QB who was there in like 2002? Dude should have a degree in every major offered there by now.
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Bart Bielema looking good in Week 0!
(I do think it was a solid hire for Illinois) |
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Their offense looks like Iowa's. If Biellema can develop they are a real B1G team. |
It takes a special sort of dedication to be as bad as UConn has been for a rather long stretch.
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Yup, followed by Bobby Petrino turning to traitor to the side he just pledged his undying loyalty to. |
I was put in the unusual spot of rooting for Bielema and Illinois. Love watching Nebraska suck!
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College football brings out true love and true hatred in people.
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On the other side we had Artur Sitkowski enter the game after the Illinois starter was injured. The same Artur Sitkowski that committed to Miami in HS as a 4* QB, was benched in HS for being ineffective, dropped to a 3*, signed with Rutgers, started the 2018 season with Rutgers, was quite possibly the worst QB I've ever seen start a P5 game, and is now at Illinois with Sophomore eligibility. |
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Nebraska is dead as a program. Who would want to coach in that black hole? And I love it. |
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As a Kansas football fan, let me tall you about.... (I'm still so disappointed we missed 100 losses in the decade because KU-UT was cancelled last year "due to COVID" i.e. due to no one wanting to play the game) SI |
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