Football World Reacts To Bizarre Situation On ESPN

A bizarre scene is currently on display on ESPN on Sunday afternoon.

ESPN is currently broadcasting a high school football game between IMG Academy, arguably the No. 1 high school team in the country, and Bishop Sycamore (Ohio).

IMG Academy is extremely well known. The Florida school has consistently produced dozens of high-level recruits. Bishop Sycamore, meanwhile, is not very well known – at all.

Apparently, Bishop Sycamore’s coach duped ESPN into thinking the program had better players than they do. ESPN essentially admitted this on the air.

“Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster. To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify,” ESPN announced on the air.

"Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster. To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify." — ESPN on air detailing how Bishop Sycamore has duped them.

— Tony Gerdeman (@TonyGerdeman) August 29, 2021

ESPN is partially to blame, of course. Google exists and there are a number of recruiting databases – including one owned by ESPN.

Still, it’s a very bizarre scene.

I know a lot about high school football in Ohio, a lot more the most. I have no idea who Bishop Sycamore is or why they’re on National TV. https://t.co/Bv6ecfxQC6

— Bryan Vrcan (@thebiv76) August 29, 2021

This is what happens when ESPN gets duped into airing a high school football game between the most talented team in the country and an online charter school nobody has heard of, went 0-6 last year, and lied about its roster to get on TV. pic.twitter.com/QUwM8BQKiY

— Ben Koo (@bkoo) August 29, 2021

The football world, especially those close to the Ohio high school scene, is pretty stunned by this.

Long and short: it’s not a school, the educational component is serviced via something similar to ECOT; got plenty of dudes that would’ve aged out of OHSAA eligibility; kids from across the country; ESPN announcers just said this coach lied to them about having multiple D1 guys

— MSL Stats, Records and Talk (@MSL_Forum) August 29, 2021

I *think* part of the issue is a 3rd party (believe it’s Paragon Marketing) acts as the broker for these games and IMG needed an opponent for the game to be played at PBTS, so broker finds a taker and when the coach is a charlatan the D1 talent scam gets them on TV.

— MSL Stats, Records and Talk (@MSL_Forum) August 29, 2021

ESPN is spending the rest of this game apologizing for this game and praying for the safety of the Bishop Sycamore players involved.

— Tony Gerdeman (@TonyGerdeman) August 29, 2021

Ohio football fans aren’t very happy, either.

Dear Football,
Bishop Sycamore is not an accurate representation of Ohio HS football. It’s not an OHSAA member. There’s far superior schools that could really and truly represent us here in the great state of Ohio. Sorry this game is on ESPN.

— James Heath (@JRockfordHeath) August 29, 2021

Lopsided high school football games aren’t rare, even when they’re on national television, but today’s contest is of the extreme variety.

We probably won’t be seeing Bishop Sycamore on the air again anytime soon.

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