Suspicion is raging over a potentially “fake” high school which played a televised football game on ESPN in the United States.
A story from FootballScoop raised concerns about the truth behind Bishop Sycamore, who lost 58-0 to IMG Academy in an exhibition game aired over the weekend.
ESPN often airs high school football games due to the US’ passion for the sport and for college recruiting - top players, who end up becoming the biggest college football and eventually NFL stars, frequently congregate at the same big-name high schools.
For example IMG Academy, in Bradenton, Florida, is a massive boarding school which has taught future professionals in tennis (Andre Agassi, Serena Williams), basketball, basketball and football, among other sports.
Bishop Sycamore proports to be a school based in Columbus, Ohio - a college sports hotbed due to Ohio State University - but it may be “online-only”, according to the FootballScoop report.
The school’s website has an empty ‘About Us’ page and looks more like a basic blog than anything you would expect from one of the top schools for teenage football talent. No posts have been made on the site since May.
It’s also unclear why the school is called Bishop Sycamore when there has never been a Bishop named Sycamore, per The Ringer’s Kevin Clark.
During the broadcast of the school’s - ‘school’? - loss to IMG, the ESPN commentators were scathing, questioning whether there were really top-level college football prospects on the roster, as Bishop Sycamore had claimed.
“Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster,” commentator Anish Shroff said on the broadcast.
“To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify. They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services.
“So, okay, that’s what you’re telling us, fine, that’s how we take it in. From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there’s got to be a point where you’re worried about health and safety.”
High school football site MaxPreps lists Bishop Sycamore’s first season as 2020, where they went 0-6.
Bizarrely the school reportedly played on Friday night as well, two days before the game against IMG, which would be incredibly unorthodox.
At best it appears Bishop Sycamore should not have been playing a nationally televised game based on the quality of its team.
At worst... who knows?
This story is crazy.
A story from FootballScoop raised concerns about the truth behind Bishop Sycamore, who lost 58-0 to IMG Academy in an exhibition game aired over the weekend.
ESPN often airs high school football games due to the US’ passion for the sport and for college recruiting - top players, who end up becoming the biggest college football and eventually NFL stars, frequently congregate at the same big-name high schools.
For example IMG Academy, in Bradenton, Florida, is a massive boarding school which has taught future professionals in tennis (Andre Agassi, Serena Williams), basketball, basketball and football, among other sports.
Bishop Sycamore proports to be a school based in Columbus, Ohio - a college sports hotbed due to Ohio State University - but it may be “online-only”, according to the FootballScoop report.
The school’s website has an empty ‘About Us’ page and looks more like a basic blog than anything you would expect from one of the top schools for teenage football talent. No posts have been made on the site since May.
It’s also unclear why the school is called Bishop Sycamore when there has never been a Bishop named Sycamore, per The Ringer’s Kevin Clark.
During the broadcast of the school’s - ‘school’? - loss to IMG, the ESPN commentators were scathing, questioning whether there were really top-level college football prospects on the roster, as Bishop Sycamore had claimed.
“Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster,” commentator Anish Shroff said on the broadcast.
“To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify. They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services.
“So, okay, that’s what you’re telling us, fine, that’s how we take it in. From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there’s got to be a point where you’re worried about health and safety.”
High school football site MaxPreps lists Bishop Sycamore’s first season as 2020, where they went 0-6.
Bizarrely the school reportedly played on Friday night as well, two days before the game against IMG, which would be incredibly unorthodox.
At best it appears Bishop Sycamore should not have been playing a nationally televised game based on the quality of its team.
At worst... who knows?
This story is crazy.
