The story of Bishop Sycamore went viral on Monday after the fake school’s cover was blown over the weekend. Now, the goods about the football program are being spilled left and right.
To recap, ESPN aired several high school football games over the weekend between prominent national programs. Somehow, a football team allegedly comprised of some junior college dropouts, 19 and 20-year-olds, that doesn’t have a real address for its online charter school, made it into one of the games. That school was Bishop Sycamore, which went 0-6 last year and is recognized around Ohio for being the non-program that it is.
Bishop Sycamore got cleared to play even though they:
– Went 0-6 last year
– Played a game on Friday, 2 days before their 58-0 loss to IMG Academy
– Lied about the recruiting status of their players, saying they had multiple D-1 college prospects
– Have multiple players who did not appear in recruiting databases anywhere
The team is run by alleged scammers, including a coach with a felony arrest warrant, who allegedly owes money over unpaid bank loans.
So, now that you have all the background, here is a look at a roster they handed out the week before the IMG Academy game. This sort of thing should raise all sorts of red flags.
Imagine that. Bishop Sycamore didn't give the TV guys an accurate or complete roster.
This is the "roster" we were given when they played Archbishop Hoban last week… pic.twitter.com/e51OJCAuOA
— Ryan (@Isley23) August 29, 2021
You forgot to mention, Ryan, when I went to talk to the coach to get the player numbers, at least 6 weren’t actually on the team, we added 5 hand-written and the coach asked one kid “who are you/what’s your name?”. Fun night announcing…..
— Brian Saus (@briansaus) August 30, 2021
You can see that many of the players play both ways (O/D Line). No roster numbers were provided.
This operation is about as disorganized, fake and illegitimate as it gets. Yet somehow they’ve talked their way into games against prominent schools and made their way onto ESPN. Now they are forever notorious, right up there with this guy’s girlfriend.
ESPN eventually released a statement addressing the situation.
If you want some more background on the story, we suggest The Athletic and Awful Announcing’s reads.
