re: Who is Bishop Sycamore? What we know about mysterious HS football team that played on ESPN

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The weirdest part to me is that you would assume ESPN would just try to bury this story.

No, this game re-aired again on ESPNU last night at like 8p CT.

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Can't change schedule baw, even when it's embarrassing.

First off, did anyone actually check if there was a "Bishop Sycamore", the person, that every existed in Ohio?

Second, this is just AAU basketball bullshite making its way into HS football. There are tons of grifters and "grassroots" organizers out there scheming to make money by creating bullshite HS schools/teams. Many are just skirting charter school requirements to pose as schools. Some have some local "ministers" in charge. They are shams...

But for the most part so is IMG. It just has the backing of a longtime sports agency. These are barely "schools" in the academic sense, and really just HS farm league organizations.

Honestly ESPN deserves every bit of this. Their HS football “showcases” always consist of some national football factory playing some other national football factory (as if these schools need more tools to recruit players out of their hometown schools)resulting in boring games with no emotion. HS football is about passion and rivalry . Show me Breaux Bridge vs Cecilia, Acadiana vs Carencro, Zachary vs Scottlandville etc. People want to see teams play that hate each other with packed stands and foil wrapped bbq burgers.

Wait so now OHSSA is claiming they switched names after the original COF charter was taken away? I am confused on how this is all playing out. Allegedly OHSSA started investigating them in '17 when they claimed to have 750 boys in school and nobody could find any of them.

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On how COVID helped Bishop Sycamore schedule more prominent opponents.

In 2019, Bishop Sycamore played and they went 4-5; they actually had a decent year. But you’ll notice they didn’t play anyone in Ohio; they didn’t play any Ohio high schools. They played some big schools nationally, and they played some similar legit programs like a community school out of the Cincinnati area, which is basically Bishop Sycamore but legitimate.

They don’t go play IMG; they just play other programs like them, small high schools. And then the pandemic happened, and that was the perfect opportunity for Roy Johnson and Bishop Sycamore to bounce. All of a sudden you have schools that can’t find games, because the schools around them cancelled their seasons or weren’t playing until the spring. Or I had this game scheduled, but they just had COVID breakouts and now I have to find a game. So all of a sudden they are back on the scene. Full schedule in Ohio, play IMG, and then springboard that into their 2021 season running the same scam.

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Here’s how I would explain it. If 99 percent of schools are doing the right thing, and only one percent of schools are doing the wrong thing, that’s still enough schools doing the wrong thing to let Bishop Sycamore to keep going. There are over 800 member schools in the OHSAA. If one percent of them are willing to play Bishop Sycamore, then guess what, that’s eight games. You’re the majority of the way to a football schedule.

It just takes a couple of people that don’t care to be able to perpetuate the Bishop Sycamore scam to keep going. If no one would play them, then there’s no scam. They can’t play games if no one schedules them. They only need a few people to buy in to be able to keep it going. They don’t even have to play 10 games this season. If they play five games a season, Roy Johnson can still make money that way. It doesn’t take a lot of buy-ins from a couple of people that don’t care.

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I know because they had the Charter revoked in 17 when it was another name. This is not an one time thing it appears. This has been going on with them for at least 4 years.

We need to blame IMG for this just as much as ESPN. IMG is in FHSAA and they should have checked on this as well. Actually they should have been the first ones checking.

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When you think about it bishop sycamore is a ridiculous name even on its face.

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Why?

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https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1433081450597953540

God bless Bishop Sycamore

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And then the pandemic happened, and that was the perfect opportunity for Roy Johnson and Bishop Sycamore to bounce. All of a sudden you have schools that can’t find games, because the schools around them cancelled their seasons or weren’t playing until the spring. Or I had this game scheduled, but they just had COVID breakouts and now I have to find a game. So all of a sudden they are back on the scene.

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That's how they got on Massillon's schedule. Once OHSAA announced they were going to a 6 game regular season for 2020, most schools played a league schedule only. Since Massillon is an independent, they were scrambling to fill out their schedule.

Bishop Sycamore swooped in at the last minute to take the week 2 game. The booster club meeting that week was when we were told they were a "non-OHSAA online charter school".