This whole story is just wild from start to finish.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/bishop-sycamore-espn-saga-high-school-football-img-academy
It’s been a little over 24 hours since Bishop Sycamore and its mysterious football team got surprise airtime on ESPN against the best high school football team in the country. Since then, this saga has gotten far weirder and wildly sinister than anyone could have predicted.
To catch you up, ESPN aired their final game of the GEICO ESPN High School Kickoff Sunday to usher in the start of high school football. In the game, high school powerhouse IMG Academy faced off against the mysteriously unknown Ohio school Bishop Sycamore to the tune of a 58-0 drubbing. Nothing seemed off until ESPN’s commentators called out Bishop Sycamore and their lack of transparency regarding… everything about them as a school.
In the end, it turned out Bishop Sycamore lied about having D1 prospects and falsified player names on their roster. And yet, they made it onto ESPN’s national broadcast on Sunday — after playing a game less than 48 hours prior!! — due to an apparent lack of fact-checking on Bishop Sycamore’s sketchy past and easily discoverable 0-6 record from last season.
Somehow, somehow, this is just the tip of the iceberg with this story. According to reports from Awful Announcing and The Columbus Dispatch, we know a lot more about Bishop Sycamore, how ESPN got duped, and the circumstances that surround this entire saga.
The Bishop Sycamore website is a watered-down blog which last updated in May. The team’s About Us page is blank and their Twitter is acting as a PR mouthpiece while also pretending like nothing happened on Sunday.
Another website acting in defense of Bishop Sycamore is Prep Gridiron Logistics, a company that — in their words — “will act as your personal concierge for identifying, contacting and scheduling elite, nationally-relevant, out-of-state high school football opponents.”
Mentioned in the tweet, Paragon Marketing is the company that booked all the games for the GEICO Kickoff, but we’ll get to them later.
In their few years of existence, the team has had games canceled due to roster issues, lack of travel accommodations, and teams discovering Bishop Sycamore fielding players older than high schoolers. Bishop Sycamore has yet to field a full team of players, meaning they’ve played all of their games shorthanded thus far.
The reported size of Bishop Sycamore’s roster is between 30 and 35 players, far fewer players than the typical high school roster. There’s also the chatter that Bishop Sycamore has no road white jersey and that they’re playing with mismatched helmets and sharing them between players.
Not the kind of organization and prep work you’d expect from a high school football team.
During Sunday’s game, Johnson pushed back against a running clock for his team, putting his players at even more risk even after the starting quarterback was injured.
As for Bishop Sycamore playing two games over the span of a few days, this is not the first time it’s happened. Johnson even downplayed the number of players in the game, according to The Columbus Dispatch, stating it was about 15 players who had played in both games when it was, in fact, more.
According to Awful Announcing, Paragon gave a handful of details regarding their role in all of this, adding they would never work with Bishop Sycamore again.
If that weren’t enough, Bishop Sycamore is still scheduled to play games as early as September 10. For the sake of the kids on the team — high-school age or not — let us hope reason wins out and Bishop Sycamore is disbanded before anyone seriously gets hurt.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/bishop-sycamore-espn-saga-high-school-football-img-academy
It’s been a little over 24 hours since Bishop Sycamore and its mysterious football team got surprise airtime on ESPN against the best high school football team in the country. Since then, this saga has gotten far weirder and wildly sinister than anyone could have predicted.
To catch you up, ESPN aired their final game of the GEICO ESPN High School Kickoff Sunday to usher in the start of high school football. In the game, high school powerhouse IMG Academy faced off against the mysteriously unknown Ohio school Bishop Sycamore to the tune of a 58-0 drubbing. Nothing seemed off until ESPN’s commentators called out Bishop Sycamore and their lack of transparency regarding… everything about them as a school.
In the end, it turned out Bishop Sycamore lied about having D1 prospects and falsified player names on their roster. And yet, they made it onto ESPN’s national broadcast on Sunday — after playing a game less than 48 hours prior!! — due to an apparent lack of fact-checking on Bishop Sycamore’s sketchy past and easily discoverable 0-6 record from last season.
Somehow, somehow, this is just the tip of the iceberg with this story. According to reports from Awful Announcing and The Columbus Dispatch, we know a lot more about Bishop Sycamore, how ESPN got duped, and the circumstances that surround this entire saga.
Who, or what, is Bishop Sycamore?
Not a legitimate school, that’s for sure. According to Awful Announcing, Bishop Sycamore isn’t recognized by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, nor could anything about their location, roster, or practice facility be verified.The Bishop Sycamore website is a watered-down blog which last updated in May. The team’s About Us page is blank and their Twitter is acting as a PR mouthpiece while also pretending like nothing happened on Sunday.
Another website acting in defense of Bishop Sycamore is Prep Gridiron Logistics, a company that — in their words — “will act as your personal concierge for identifying, contacting and scheduling elite, nationally-relevant, out-of-state high school football opponents.”
Mentioned in the tweet, Paragon Marketing is the company that booked all the games for the GEICO Kickoff, but we’ll get to them later.
If Bishop Sycamore isn't a real school, how do they have students?
If it wasn’t obvious by now, Bishop Sycamore is not made up of high schoolers. A lot of them are postgraduates, with some having played in JUCO — Junior College Football, for the uninitiated — while also being older than your typical high school football player.In their few years of existence, the team has had games canceled due to roster issues, lack of travel accommodations, and teams discovering Bishop Sycamore fielding players older than high schoolers. Bishop Sycamore has yet to field a full team of players, meaning they’ve played all of their games shorthanded thus far.
The reported size of Bishop Sycamore’s roster is between 30 and 35 players, far fewer players than the typical high school roster. There’s also the chatter that Bishop Sycamore has no road white jersey and that they’re playing with mismatched helmets and sharing them between players.
Not the kind of organization and prep work you’d expect from a high school football team.
So who's in charge of running this thing at Bishop Sycamore?
OK, strap in. Bishop Sycamore’s head coach Roy Johnson has reportedly had fraud and mismanagement allegations lobbied against him since 2019. Johnson also has an active arrest warrant, adding even more chaos into the mix.During Sunday’s game, Johnson pushed back against a running clock for his team, putting his players at even more risk even after the starting quarterback was injured.
As for Bishop Sycamore playing two games over the span of a few days, this is not the first time it’s happened. Johnson even downplayed the number of players in the game, according to The Columbus Dispatch, stating it was about 15 players who had played in both games when it was, in fact, more.
So who's to blame here? ESPN? Bishop Sycamore? Paragon?
Honestly, a combination of all of the above. Paragon Marketing scheduled the event for ESPN. Paragon president Rashid Ghazi said they would have canceled had they known about Bishop Sycamore playing in multiple games that weekend, though there was already video evidence showing that to be the case.According to Awful Announcing, Paragon gave a handful of details regarding their role in all of this, adding they would never work with Bishop Sycamore again.
ESPN reportedly told Paragon they thought they were being scammed weeks ago when they couldn’t find information about the school. On top of that, Bishop Sycamore allegedly bailed on a conference call just a handful of days before the game. Yikes.
Where do we go from here?
As Bishop Sycamore, ESPN, Paragon and others pass blame back and forth like they’re reenacting the climax of Into the Woods, it’s hard to find any joy from this story anymore. What seemed like a quirky story about an unknown football team duping their way onto ESPN has turned out to be an apparently sinister scam that will likely result in legal action.If that weren’t enough, Bishop Sycamore is still scheduled to play games as early as September 10. For the sake of the kids on the team — high-school age or not — let us hope reason wins out and Bishop Sycamore is disbanded before anyone seriously gets hurt.
