Perhaps the craziest story of the high school football season to this point is the story of Bishop Sycamore, a team that doesn’t appear to even have a school.
According to multiple reports, Sycamore duped ESPN into allowing them a nationally televised game against highly-regarded IMG Academy.
During the 58-0 drubbing, ESPN announcers seemed dumbfounded at what was happening, all but admitting they were completely fooled by Sycamore’s coaches:
ESPN’s commendations WENT IN on Bishop Sycamore pic.twitter.com/RCJv46gOA3
— BuckeyeScoop.com (@kirk_barton) August 29, 2021
After the beatdown by IMG Academy, folks began looking into Bishop Sycamore. They discovered a number of concerning things about the program:
One of the CRAZIEST stories you’ll ever see.
Bishop Sycamore, an alleged fake high school, reportedly lied to ESPN to get on national television.
FULL STORY: https://t.co/HNtJqdYHEg pic.twitter.com/uw1G0OM3Hx
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) August 30, 2021
Bishop Sycamore’s quarterback last year pic.twitter.com/S08LK4okKN
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) August 30, 2021
According to a report in The Dallas Morning News:
Sporting News reported that Sycamore’s roster for a season-opening 38-0 loss to Akron’s Archbishop Hoban appears to be filled with several players who might have already graduated high school from other states. Andrew Ivins from 247Sports posted this about Bishop Sycamore on Twitter:
“They played a defender on Sunday that’s originally a 2020 from Florida. Kid has reported over two dozen fake offers. Showed up once to a 7v7 tryout and used a fake ID. His HUDL is also fake.”
The Tribune-Review in Pennsylvania had a game report that said that one of its schools, Sto-Rox, beat Bishop Sycamore 19-7 on Friday — just two days before Sycamore played IMG Academy. There is a reason that normal football teams don’t play that close together — the safety of the players.
In Texas, according to UIL rules, “no team or student in any conference shall be permitted to take part in more than one game within five calendar days.”
The talent level at Bishop Sycamore should have been easy for ESPN to check. The 247Sports recruiting rankings list 71 players from Ohio for the Class of 2022. None are from Bishop Sycamore.
Things get fishy when you go to the Bishop Sycamore “website” and there is no information listed in the About Us section or the Staff section. The only information listed is about football camps, recruiting tips, a hype video and a game report on a 2020 game.
A report from Complex notes that Bishop Sycamore coach Roy Johnson allegedly has an active arrest warrant for fraud:
The team’s head coach, Roy Johnson, also allegedly has an active arrest warrant thanks to fraud charges, while many of their players are said to have already graduated high school, which essentially means a bunch of adults got rolled by some high school kids.
A report from Awful Announcing is perhaps even worse:
There are also two very active message board threads about Bishop Sycamore. While we obviously cannot verify all the claims in these threads, we encourage you to read them for yourself, because if just some of the claims are true, athletes are being put in harms way and potentially exploited.
A quick summary can be found of the accusations can be found here on PrepGridIron.com,:
The 5-second version: They were formed as COF a few years back, but that program collapsed under fraud and misuse of funds, including fraudulently obtaining loans and failing to pay numerous vendors and landlords. so they folded that name and called themselves Bishop Sycamore.
In the 2-3 years they’ve been BS, they’ve used multiple fake addresses, multiple fake names, fraudulently attached themselves to actual charitable entities without those entities’ knowledge or permission, and then created a fake school name to attach themselves to, before giving that up and going back to just calling themselves BS and using a fake address.
There is not and never has been an actual school. And there is not and never has been a person named Bishop Sycamore. They use post-grad players, which is one of the many reasons they are not certified by OHSAA or any other certifying body for high school sports. They and their pimp, GSB, lie online about their players, their facilities, and their fake D-1 offers. Meanwhile, they barely have enough players to cover offense and defense, and they don’t have enough uniforms, equipment, and helmets for all the players.
it’s a scam from top to bottom, pimped, pushed, and promoted by GSB.
On Yappi.com, there is a 45 page thread where the accusations become increasingly alarming. Again, we cannot verify all of these claims, but given surface evidence, it seems worth sharing, because this story is just nuts.
– This is not the first time Bishop Sycamore has played two games over one weekend.
– Head Coach has an active arrest warrant and other legal problems.
– A large amount of players are older than high school age, including players who have played Juco.
Reading so many stories on Bishop Sycamore today, so let me share this one – They played a defender on Sunday that’s originally a 2020 from Florida. Kid has reported over two dozen fake offers. Showed up once to a 7v7 tryout and used a fake ID. His HUDL is also fake. Amazing.
— Andrew Ivins (@Andrew_Ivins) August 30, 2021
In my opinion, Johnson Central should proactively cancel this game and find a new opponent while there’s still time.
