IMG broadcast Bishop Sycamore's route on ESPN. Screenshot via ESPN broadcast
A broadcast of high school football on ESPN featured Bishop Sycamore, which lost 58-0.
Concerns were raised about the legitimacy of Bishop Sycamore as both a school, and as a sports program.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for an investigation into program operations.
For more stories, visit Insider's homepage.
On Sunday, a high school football match was shown on ESPN. It featured an elite team against a school whose legitimacy or existence is doubtful.
Part of the Geico Kickoff Classic series, the game was shown on ESPN's main channel. It featured IMG Academy, an elite high school sports program from Florida, as well as Bishop Sycamore (a school that claims it is in Columbus, Ohio).
It quickly became apparent that Bishop Sycamore was outclassed. IMG led 30-0 by the end of the second quarter. Media, viewers, and fans began to pay more attention to this mysterious school.
Bailey Johnson of USA Today noted that Bishop Sycamore's site did not include an address. Ohio's listing for this school listed its address as an indoor training facility. USA Today was told by an employee that there is a "football team-sized group of 30 kids" who train there once per month. However, they haven't had any schooling.
USA Today discovered that the pages "About" (Staff) and "Staff” on the Bishop Sycamore website are empty. The entire website was blank at the time this article was written.
Chris Bengel of CBS reported that Bishop Sycamore was not associated with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The Washington Post's Ben Strauss reported that the Ohio Department of Education listed the school as a noncharter, tax school for those who hold "truly religious beliefs."
Even ESPN announcers were confused.
"Bishop Sycamore said they had a few Division I prospects on their roster and, to be honest, a lot that we couldn't verify," Anish Shroff, ESPN commentator, stated during the broadcast during quarter 2. They did not appear in our database and they didn't appear in other recruiting services databases.
Continue the story
IMG won the game 58 to 0.
USA Today reports that Bishop Sycamore's head coaching has been terminated since then. Max Preps reported that four opponents who were scheduled to face Bishop Sycamore in the fall have cancelled their matches.
As the strange sporting disaster continues to unfold, more details have emerged about how a fledgling soccer program without any structure or educational legitimacy found its way onto ESPN.
Uncertain background for a program
Many people have had eyebrow-raising experiences in the wake of Bishop Sycamore losing to IMG.
Complex was told Monday by Aaron Boyd that he was the first ever player to be recruited to Bishop Sycamore.
Ray Holtzclaw's son Judah was a quarterback at Bishop Sycamore. He told Awful Announcing's Ben Koo he had to often pay for meals and hotels for the players. Holtzclaw stated that his suspicions were raised weeks prior to the first game when he discovered that the team hadn't practiced properly and didn't have adequate equipment.
According to CBS, a now-disabled GoFundMe account in Bishop Sycamore's own name described the school in Columbus as "a new football program getting established in Columbus," though this description is no longer available. On August 21, 2021 the fundraising campaign raised only $140 of its $20,000 goal.
These questions aren’t new. A 2019 Dayton Beach News-Journal article reported that Mainland High School cancelled a game against Bishop Sycamore due to insufficient information and inability to book a hotel.
Some people raised concerns about the age of the players.
CBS claims that quarterback Trillian Harris is a Bishop Sycamore QB in the class 2022. However, his 247Sports profile indicates that he is from California and is in class 2021.
Complex was told by Boyd that many of the players at Bishop were over high school age.
Boyd stated, "When I was there I was 15 – everybody else there were 19 and 20," calling his fellow teammates "grown men."
Holtzclaw stated to Awful Announcing he tried warning other teams about the presence of players on Bishop Sycamore’s roster who were older than 18.
The Point Pleasant Register reported in 2019 that Point Pleasant High School cancelled a game against Bishop Sycamore because of allegations that it had many players older than 18 and players who had used up their eligibility for four years. The article refers to Bishop Sycamore "YouthBuild", a different Columbus-based school. The Post reported that Bishop Sycamore reached out to YouthBuild in order to provide education for its athletes. YouthBuild now states that it is not associated with Bishop Sycamore.
To book its matchups, ESPN used a third-party
How did this team get on ESPN? The network admitted that it had used Paragon Marketing to book matchups for its Geico Kickoff Classic.
ESPN released a statement saying that Paragon, who secured the matchup for the high school events, regretted the situation. "They assured us that they would take steps to prevent such a situation from occurring moving forward."
After a 58-0 defeat to IMG Academy, Roy Johnson, the head football coach at Bishop Sycamore was fired. Image via ESPN broadcast
The Post reports that Paragon received help from Joe Maimone (Vice President at Billboard) who runs Gridiron Prep Logistic, a high school football scheduling company. Maimone was reportedly asked by Bishop Sycamore's ex-coach to help schedule the season. Maimone also reportedly said that Paragon could play IMG.
Maimone said to the Post of Bishop Sycamore, "They should be commended." "They are the only school who had the courage to accept the best."
He also used Twitter to defend the school.
It was also revealed that Bishop Sycamore had on Friday played Sto-Rox (a Pennsylvania-based program) before the Sunday game. This quick turnaround can pose safety hazards for players.
Awful Announcing also noted that Sunday's game featured some players who were both offensive and defensive, increasing their injury risk.
Shroff stated that "from what we have seen so far, it is not a fair battle and there's got been a point when you're concerned about safety and health."
Paragon informed Awful Announcing it wasn't aware that Bishop Sycamore played Friday, and would have cancelled the match if the company had known.
Mike DeWine, Ohio governor, called for the Ohio Board of Education Tuesday to investigate Bishop Sycamore’s operations.
Insider has the original article.
