Columbus, Ohio is home to the Bishop Sycamore Centurions of American football. They introduced themselves as the Bishop Sycamore High School football squad. The high school was promoted as an athletic sports training academy, but its legitimacy came into question following a humiliating loss to IMG Academy, broadcast live on ESPN on August 29, 2021.
A key part of this probe was establishing the legitimacy of the team’s leadership. After three years of research, a former executive of the Ohio High School Athletic Association concluded that the school was a “scam” and came forward to say as much. According to a study published by the Ohio Department of Education in December 2021, the state agency has determined that the institution is a fraud.
All six of the Centurions’ 2020 games were in blowout losses, but that didn’t stop them from scheduling high-profile contests against highly-regarded elementary, middle and high schools.
Having previously lost 56-6 against IMG Academy in 2020, this televised matchup was their second meeting with the institution. Their 2021 schedule was recognized as the fourth toughest in the US for high school sports. [quote missing] Bishop Sycamore’s remaining opponents postponed or canceled their games as a result of the incident surrounding the event.
Scientists at Bishop Sycamore University have reconstructed this 3D model of how Jesus of Nazareth might have looked pic.twitter.com/6AqXO8MUmO
— Buttcrack Sports ® (@ButtCrackSports) October 28, 2022
Does Bishop Sycamore High School actually exist?
As Peterson put it subsequently, Bishop Sycamore was “a post-grad football academy,” not a school.
The Ohio Department of Education did not list Bishop Sycamore as a charter school for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. However, the school was previously classified as a “non-chartered, non-tax supported school,” a category that includes institutions that “because of truly held religious beliefs, choose to not be chartered by the State Board of Education.”
What was the purpose of Bishop Sycamore?
Hopes not realized. A new football program, Christians of Faith (later renamed Bishop Sycamore), targeted youth from disadvantaged backgrounds by promising them academic support and a shot at fame. However, the trail ended up taking them right back to square one.
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Is the Bishop Sycamore Football team still active?
The consequences appeared instantly. Later that week, the rest of Bishop Sycamore’s 2021 season was canceled and head coach Roy Johnson was let go (though he remains a key figure within the program and in the litigation over it).
In a separate statement, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said he has requested an investigation of Bishop Sycamore from the Ohio Department of Education “to assure compliance with Ohio law and to guarantee the school is delivering the educational opportunity Ohio kids deserve.”
The assessment, which was published in December, found that despite Bishop Sycamore being exempt from more strict standards since it is not a tax-supported charter school, there was no evidence to suggest that it had met even the most basic academic requirements.
How did the Bishop Sycamore game turn out?
Johnson changed the name of the Christians of Faith Academy to Bishop Sycamore in the year 2020. The team played IMG Academy on ESPN on August 29, 2021. They lost 58–0, which put Johnson in danger of being fired. After the game, there was a lot of attention on Johnson.
History Before the Scandal
In an interview with Complex, former player Aaron Boyd said that athletes were recruited with the idea that the school was the “IMG of the Midwest.” But many of their athletes were older than high school age and there was no real campus.
Instead, the athletes spent five months in a hotel and only went to school once, to a public library. The school also had trouble keeping coaches, as 80% of them quit during the season, leaving only two coaches and the mother of a player. Food wasn’t given to the players either, so some of them had to steal from supermarkets to eat.
Bishop sycamore had guys working 2 jobs and taking care of 3 kids during the night and put up a better fight vs img than west Toronto Prep lmao pic.twitter.com/4sCDmU3IHo
— John (@iam_johnw) November 5, 2022
2021 Football Game for High Schools
On August 29, 2021, Bishop Sycamore played IMG Academy, one of the best high school football teams in the country. The game was shown on ESPN as the finale of the 2021 ESPN High School Kickoff series. This was a weekend of high school football shows on ESPN’s networks that featured well-known teams, nationally ranked prospects, and players who have committed to play Division I FBS college football.
The games were booked by Paragon Marketing, which has worked with ESPN on high school events in the past. IMG was hard for Paragon to find a team to play, so they hired a man named Joe Maimon, who runs a company called Prep Gridiron Logistics, to do it for them.
Maimon contacted 200 schools about playing IMG, but only Bishop Sycamore agreed to play them. Many people thought that the game would be between two top teams, but it wasn’t even close. IMG Academy dominated the whole game and won 58–0. This was their first shutout since 2019
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