Two days after an Ohio-based high school football team met with the powerful IMG National Academy in a football prep mismatch on Sunday on ESPN, questions continue to be raised about how the game was scheduled and whether the school exists.
ESPN and Paragon, the company that works to schedule and deliver high school clashes to ESPN, both said they were unaware that Bishop Sycamore had apparently played a game Friday night and did not have the number of potentially highly recruited people who claimed to have when the game was scheduled.
IMG won the match 58-0, and ESPN broadcasters quickly noticed the mismatch and commented throughout the game, citing the safety of the players. They also said they were suspected when it was difficult to get information about the team and its players, including player lists.
In a statement, ESPN said: “We regret that this has happened and we have discussed it with Paragon, which secured the match and manages most of the programming of high school events. We have been assured that they will take steps to prevent this type of situations to move forward “.
Paragon president Rashid Ghazi told Awful Announcing that if he had known Bishop Sycamore had played a match on Friday, he would have canceled Sunday’s match against IMG.
A Paragon spokesman told The Columbus Dispatch that the list he received a month before the match was different from Sunday’s match. The spokesman added that it is likely that the company will have to review the lists more carefully in the days leading up to the departure. The firm reported that the company is currently analyzing training staff, checking lists with recruitment rankings and analyzing current and previous season schedules.
Bishop Sycamore coach Roy Johnson, speaking on Twitter Spaces, said about 15 players played in both games, though he said most only played small amounts.
Bishop Sycamore played six games last season, 0-6. It has surpassed 342-49 since it began its program in 2020. The school plans to play several national prep centers this year, including Duncanville, Texas, St. Louis. Edward (Ohio) and DeMatha Catholic (Maryland), according to the Dispatch.
The physical address of the school is listed as a recreation center in Columbus. According to the Dispatch, the Ohio Department of Education does not list a charter school under the name Bishop Sycamore, but it did list it last year as a “charter school without taxes.”
In an interview with Dispatch, Johnson said his program is young and growing and that “we want to do better,” the newspaper reported.