Ohio-based high school football team Bishop Sycamore faces serious questions about its legitimacy, days after suffering a humiliating 58-0 loss to Florida's IMG Academy. Bishop Sycamore started gaining attention among sports fans during the second quarter of that one-sided loss with ESPN's announcers implying on air that the said high school lied to get on television.
The announcers said that Bishop Sycamore told ESPN that they had several Division I prospects on their roster, but they could not verify that claim. The said players' names didn't show up in their database and even in the databases of other recruiting services. Such was the mismatch at that point that the announcers were worried about the health and safety of the Bishop Sycamore players in that contest.
Paragon and ESPN play the blame game after Bishop Sycamore fiasco
ESPN released a statement a day after the controversial game was played and deflected some of the blame to Paragon Marketing Group. ESPN said Paragon was the group responsible for the said matchup and that they handle the majority of the network's high school event scheduling.
A spokesman of the Paragon group told the Columbus Dispatch afterward that the roster it received from Bishop Sycamore a month before the game was different than the one they listed for Sunday's contest against IMG.
What made the said game even more dangerous was that it was Bishop Sycamore's second game in three days. Bishop Sycamore played in Ohio two days before the showdown with IMG Academy.
Paragon President Rashid Ghazi said in an interview with Awful Announcing that he would have canceled Bishop Sycamore's game against IMG if he had known beforehand that they already played two days prior.
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Former coach Roy Johnson facing several charges in the state of Ohio
More sketchy details have emerged surrounding Bishop Sycamore, with the said institution not even listed as a charter school by the Ohio Department of Education. Also, their football program is not affiliated with the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine waded into the issue on Tuesday afternoon, saying he was concerned by the recent reports about Bishop Sycamore and asked the state's education department to make sure the said school complied with Ohio law.
One guy who's having trouble with the law is Bishop Sycamore coach Roy Johnson, who was fired on Tuesday. According to Fox News, the former coach faces an active warrant in the state of Ohio "for failure to appear in a domestic violence case that was eventually dropped to a criminal mischief charge."
He is also set to go to trial for defaulting on a $100,000 loan from First Merchants Bank and faces a civil lawsuit after allegedly not paying a hotel over $100,000 to house football players back in 2018.
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